O.W.L. Mumbo Jumbo (Elemental)

[SilentGaze]

Hilda sat at her desk, satisfied with the set-up for her class. She had never been a teacher before, and she absolutely despised teenagers for the most part, so this job was highly inappropriate for Hilda except for the part that she had highly attuned Sight and was very in touch with the future.

She would attempt to throw in some of the traditional shit, but Hilda was positive her teaching style wasn't going to be... anything like what students had dealt with before. Except maybe a teacher from hell, but that was okay. Hilda found it a rather amusing thought.

But, before she became the Devil Teacher, Hilda had to know about her predecessor and what the students thought they knew.

Now all she had to do was wait. Cup of coffee empty except for the dregs, Hilda was awake and ready to tolerate... most things. She tapped the board with her wand, allowing the words 'Pick a seat. Don't open the bags on your desk.' In each bag was an object and a slip of paper. Hilda knew one of her students was going to open it despite her instructions, and she knew where said student would be sitting. Their slip of paper said 'Can you read, or do you just not like directions?' The object inside was a set of glasses.

-----------

Yasu ran to catch up with the two Ravenclaw girls. "Ready for Divination?" she shouted as she slowed and fell in step with them.

[Elemental]

"You betcha, Yasu!", Somalia grinned, "I'm totally ready for this new professor, maybe she'll actually teach us some stuff instead of looking down her nose at us like the last teacher."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that yet," Lana warned, "all the Divination professors I've met have been the same way, and you saw her this morning, I think she's pretty grouchy. Anyway, when did you start liking divination so much, I thought you hated it?"
"Naw, it's alright. I just never paid attention before. I want to start things off right this year."
"What about you, Yasu, are you excited or dreading this class?" Lana turned around and walked backwards so as to see Yasu's face when she answered.

[SilentGaze]

Spotting the ever-familiar stairs of the tower, Yasu shook her head with a defeated smile. "I'll always dread the stairs. But as for the class... I don't like to make judgements. Usually I'd say I dislike her because of her obviously bad temper and grouchiness. But Professor Lysander is all over her, so there must be something that'll make this all good," Yasu decided, thinking back to her encounter with the two on her way to breakfast. Cael obviously was off to the wrong foot with the woman, and Cael got along with a lot of people. However, it was also early in the morning, and it was evident that neither Professor Roads nor Cael were morning people.

"Ugh! Time to burn all the calories I'll ever eat for the next week," Yasu murmured as she neared the stairs.

[Elemental]

The girls walked up the stairs and into the classroom. They chose a table together and sat down.
"Don't open the bags on your desk." Lana read as Somalia was reaching for hers.
"Darn, oh well. I guess I don't want to start off with a bad reputation." Somalia put her hand on the table and impatiently tapped out rhythms.

[SilentGaze]

Yasu sat down beside the two Ravenclaw girls where a ratty brown bag sloppily sewn together and tied shut with a thin piece of rope lay. She was curious, but when Lana read the instructions written on the board, Yasu's hand quickly retracted from said bag.

Eventually, two Ravenclaw boys entered. One was short for his age with wild brown hair and seemed rather serious about whatever he was animatedly talking as he typed away on... was that a cell phone? The dusty old castle actually had service? Hilda would have to make note of this. She could still do work for Pixel-X. Anyway, the boy looked rather plugged in, earbuds settled in his ears and a 3DS was sticking out of his cloak pocket. The other boy was tall and dashing in a more mature way, appearing to be the perfect goody-two-shoes.

Hilda knew which one was going to open the bag.

Yasu recognized Chaz from his voice as he explained to the boy next to him how to modify the programming for a video game. Chaz was pretty much a techno genius and liked to break Hogwarts rules when it came to using those electronics during school hours. Still, she looked up at him from her seat and blushed when he glanced at her, grinning.

Then, returning to what he was saying and head banging to his music, Chaz sat down, prying open the bag at his seat just as the bell rang to start class. The bell ended just as he pulled out the glasses and slip of paper, staring at it in confusion.

"Mister Norchester, thank you for demonstrating what not to do when you don't understand the instructions on the board," Hilda called out as she stood, wrapping her cloak around herself. Chaz opened his mouth to say something, then looked back at what he was holding. He read the paper and managed to bring out a look of utter coolness before looking back at Hilda.

"The world is full of distractions," Chaz tried to cover with a smooth smile.

Professor Roads arched her eyebrows. "As true as that is, let's make it easy for me, because you don't want to see what happens when things are difficult. Earbuds. Cell. Gone," Hilda instructed, and Chaz tried to look calm and collected as he did as he was told. Yasu giggled, and it was Chaz's turn to blush as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

Satisfied, Hilda turned back to her class. "This is Divination class. You thinking of cheating or plagiarizing or anything else equally brainless and I will know. If I'm going to waste my time grading your work, let's make sure it's actually yours," Hilda informed her class. "Rule breaking... keeping illegal secrets. If I have reason to I'll look into it. But I would really rather not look too deep into your lives, so let's just not do either of those things either." As she listed her rules, they were written on the board.

Hilda went over to Chaz and snatched the glasses from him, popping them onto the bridge of his nose. "What else? Oh yes, watch the board. It has many important things to tell you, and sometimes I won't feel it necessary to speak up. Too much effort. Failing to see the board will earn you a special set of spectacles. Don't talk over me. Talk back to me all you like. You're the one who won't like the end result. Now, who passed the first test?" While she had been talking, the board had changed to read 'Open your bags and raise your hand. Think of what your object has to do with Divination class.Doing these three things means you passed the test.'

Yasu opened her bag to discover... a smoking pipe?! She gaped at it, but raised her hand anyway, scrambling to think of what it could possibly have to do with Divination.

(ooc: If Lana opens her bag she'll find a sleeping mask (the kind that covers your eyes) and Somalia will find a mini telescope. If they raise their hands in your post, Hilda will nod to Lana and ask 'what does it have to do with Divination?'. Just so you know so you don't have to wait before she gives her answer. If she raises her hand anyway.)

[Elemental]

Lana nudged Somalia who was in a stupor, already dazed by the class, and pointed to the board where some new instructions appeared. Both girls eagerly opened their bags. Lana found a sleeping mask and Somalia found a telescope. Somalia instantly raised her hand. Lana, with the more difficult of the two objects, paused for half a second before raising her hand.
Hilda nodded to Lana when she saw her hand, "What does it have to do with Divination?"
"Well, Professor Roads, sleep is very important for delving into one's inner eye. In sleep one is usually calm, but more susceptible to prying from other magicians. Sleep serves to focus the inner eye and can often lead to prophetic dreams to those with strong sight." Lana set her hand in her lap and awaited the approval or disapproval of Professor Roads. Somalia looked slightly stunned, like she couldn't've come up with that much information on such quick notice. What she was thinking was, (italics) A telescope can be used to find the alignment of the stars thus predicting events that depend upon certain alignments. (end italics)

[SilentGaze]

Hilda nodded at the response. "Correct," she replied curtly, tapping the chalkboard with her wand to clear away the instructions. It was replaced by the word dreams. Hilda moved on, nodding to children throughout the room. Soon words like 'visions', 'cards', 'animal entrails' (the kid who got the stuffed animal looked thoroughly depressed that Hilda snatched it away shortly after, though she claimed had the kid gotten it right and she hadn't had to supply the answer the kid could've kept it), 'looking through glass' (the kid who got the crystal ball ahd it lucky), and 'clouds' began to appear on the board.

"Yasu," Professor Roads called out.

Yasu bit her lip, staring at the smoking pipe. "Can I get a hint?" she asked, glancing up at the professor.

Hilda didn't look too impressed. "It's a smoking pipe, in case you weren't sure."

"I know that!" Yasu insisted, frowning and looking back at the object in her hands. Okay... smoking pipes... made... smoke... so... "Smoke?"

Hilda rolled her eyes, but nodded all the same and tapped the board so it could show up with the rest of the words.

"Somalia," she then called out, turning her gaze to the girl besides the Gryffindor.

[Elemental]

Somalia was caught off guard, "Um, a telescope is for reading the heavens and the alignments of planets and, stars and... stuff." Somalia fingered the telescope, messing with dials on the side randomly. Lana absently messed with her object too, her attention was more on the class than on her hands though whereas Somalia was the other way round.

[SilentGaze]

Hilda gave a stern nod to Somalia to show that she had gotten it right, and summoned the word 'heavens' to her chalkboard. After calling on the two remaining students, all the words were up there.

"There are dozens of ways to see into the future, or look into things you shouldn't know. It used to be whoever got lucky enough to just feel it would know, but humans are nosy. We have no sense of personal space anymore," Hilda said with a roll of her eyes. "I'm going to teach you all the ways you can be a creepy stalker and destroy people's bubbles and try and see if you'll actually have to work to make sure you become rich or if your mom will let you live in her basement for the rest of your life. Either in class or tonight, use one of these methods to try and see something in the future. Write down whatever you see."

Hilda then walked over to her desk, grabbing her empty mug and magically filling it with more coffee to drink. "You can start now or you can waste your time and do it later. Not my grade. Not my problem. Check the textbooks. Do... student-y things." Hilda managed to gesture to the pile of dusty books to the right of the chalkboard and with that she sat down and took a swig of her caffeine.

[Elemental]

"Well," Lana looked at Somalia.
"Textbook time." Somalia got up and joined the cue for books, Lana followed closely. The girls sat down and Lana opened her book to the crystal ball section and began reading. Somalia flipped to the tea leaves page, "Crystal balls seem so unnecessarily complicated, why'd you chose that?"
"It's worked well for me before, I might as well start with something I'm good at, right?"
"It's possible to be good at divination? I just picked the thing with the least interpretation and went for it."
"That sounds like something you'd do." Both girls got up from the table. Lana got a crystal ball and Somalia grabbed a teacup and a teapot. They both started working, consulting their books often. Lana looked up at what Yasu was doing, "Ooh, nice choice." Then she looked back down and started scribbling on a piece of parchment.

[SilentGaze]

Yasu, always fancying herself to have a delicate nose, had gone with an aroma test to see the future. Unlike some that simply revealed something random about your future, you had to have something in mind when you went about the aroma test, so Yasu had gone for 'this year's romance', ever the hopeless romantic that she was. How would her love life turn out?

She had retrieved a book and a snagged a couple things she knew for certain to be apart of the whole ordeal, including some flowers and herbs that were hanging in baskets from the ceiling.

It was as Yasu was reading about the other materials she'd need besides the actual scented objects that Lana made a comment. "Thanks! I'll try and make it smell nice over here for you... though whether or not it will isn't really up to me, I guess... it's up to the future, which I suck at reading so... maybe I'll be better at smelling," Yasu replied, smiling in determination. Materials collected, she set about her work, taking a bowl and filling it with a rose petal to represent what kind of relationship she was looking for, along with a daisy petal to represent her gender, and a tulip to represent her age. A sunflower showed she was more of a morning and day person, while a plain leaf showed she wasn't in a relationship yet. She began to crush the petals into as fine a powder as she could manage, not sure how it would all turn out when done.

"Do you really just make stuff up?"

[Elemental]

Somalia put her teapot on the table and looked at Yasu, "Whaddya mean do I really make stuff up? It's the only way to do divination! I say some normal stuff throw in some crazy predictions and balance it out with some uncommon but perfectly safe events. Works wonders for my grade and it's more fun than spending the time to study random junk like this and get nothing out of it."
Lana elbowed her friend, "Shh, Hilda might hear you. You don't want to get a bad rep on the first day, play it cool."
"Right, lay low until you can get away with it." Somalia down her tea in two gulps and started turning the cup to different angles with a confused expressing on her face, consulting the textbook quizzically. Lana closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, and looked deep into the crystal ball.

[SilentGaze]

Yasu narrowed her eyes at the creation before her, deep in thought. "So that's why I can barely pass? My mind has been blown... Luckily I just have to identify what kind of smell this is and the book will tell me the rest..."

Then she began to mix the ingredients until she could barely discern the finely ground pieces from one another. A small cup of water and a soft enchantment with her wand and a bit more mixing and Yasu had created a rosy pink paste with just the slightest tinge of a darker purple on the inside, and some orange on the edges. Eying her textbook, she dipped her ring-finger into the paste and pulled it up to smell.

"Quick, someone tell me if this smells more like wet clothes and pizza or popcorn and plastic," Yasu somewhat demanded and somehow giggled, thrusting her hand out for Somalia or Lana to test.

[Elemental]

Lana pulled back with a look like "you're crazy" on her face, one eyebrow raised and her mouth half upturned. Somalia paused for a second and then leaned forward to smell yasu's finger.
"It smells more like wet clothes and pizza to me." she said, "That's strange. How did you get it to do that? I thought it would smell like herbs and spices."
"You've never done that before?" Lana interjected, "I've tried it but it never was very potent, I only got it to half herbs half divination smelling. Can I smell, Yasu?"

[SilentGaze]

Yasu's mouth formed a perfect 'o' at Somalia's opinion and she suddenly entered deep thought. "Does it really? Are you sure?" And then, through her wondering she realized Lana had asked to smell it too. "Go for it." She offered her hand to Lana, thinking over the results again. She hadn't been sure herself, though she had definitely been leaning towards the wet clothes and pizza as well. Now she would have to check the textbook again to see exactly what that meant.