First Divinations Class

Now that the holidays had come and passed, and a semblance of normalcy had been restored, Elana Montgomery found herself following down the first floor corridor to the new Divination room. Usually it was held in one of the towers, but there was a change in staffing, and apparently they had requested a new room. It stuck her as odd that at the feast, when the announcement was made and the new Professor was named, there wasn’t a face to put it to. Some seemed a bit wary of the fact, but to her, it was exciting. She loved surprises, and new people, so there wasn’t much that could go wrong aside from the fact that Elana knew very little about Divination. Other then simple tea readings which she had learned her third year, she was lost.

Upon entering the classroom, she ignored the coat rack and kept her cloak and scarf tightly wound around her body, still shaking like a leaf from the chilly halls. Other than the Hufflepuff common room, there weren’t many places in the castle that seemed to keep warm in the winter. Even the new classroom, she noted, with its large windows, allowed the chill to seep in. Roger, the blue eyed Siamese trailing her close, let out a loud whining meow, beginning to pace. In the spring and fall he roamed the grounds looking for small animals to prey on, but grew bored and restless in the winter, following her. He was now eying the cat at the front of the room suspiciously, when she gave him a tap with her foot. “No trouble from you today.” She hissed at the ornery cat, shooing him toward what she would make her seat.

Lowering herself into an empty seat near the back, she allowed single chair between herself, and a student she couldn’t recall seeing before huddled over his books. The Professor, she observed, was still unaccounted for. Elana began to wonder if he had bothered to show up at Hogwarts after all, or if she would have to supplement something in its place. Roger, the Siamese, leapt onto the round table, eying the unknown student. “Have you met the new Professor?” Elana blurted out, scooping the stir crazy cat off the table and plopping him on her lap. “I don’t think we've met, actually. I’m Elana.” Extending a slender gloved hand across the empty chair between them, she smiled as warmly as she could on the cold, blustery day.

[ uniform. ]

To most, Jasper did not seem the type to partake in a class like Divination; he was the serious, bookish type, after all. What could Divination have anything to do with "actual magic". It was strange to him, on multiple levels, that anyone could view any field of magic in such a way. After all, all magic was inherently nonsensical and confusing. One could not explain how they could transform a mouse into a goblet, or lock a door with a flick of their wrist. None of it made sense. So why was Divination picked on? Why was it lowly? He supposed it could be pinned on con men, but couldn't one claim that Potions was a bullshit class, as people faked potions often as well? People were simply like that.

But, more importantly, Jasper's relationship with the sight was much closer than he cared to admit. Ren was even more so connected to it, of course (of course he was better than Jasper at something). If his brother was a seer, Jasper could not say. The important factors were not there. But Ren was touched by divinative powers, and he wielded a tarot deck at all times. Jasper was not on his level, but remnants had rubbed off on him, possibly through their mother's blood. After all, Cole's room had to be covered in star charts and crystal balls for a reason.

It was because of this connection that Jasper stuck with Divination. Perhaps, some day, he'll open up new possibilities to this skill, if that was even possible. But mostly, it was simply fun to see what happened. To see what people saw. There were infinite ways to tell the future, cultural and societal traditions existing beyond their understanding. Yes, astrology and arithmancy were separated from the field, like they weren't the same damn thing.

There Jasper sat himself down; books pristine, glasses pushed up with his middle- and fore-fingers. The new professor was nowhere in sight, and that phased him slim to none. Professors around Hogwarts were quirky, increasingly so, and this was the first time they were sneaking a peak at them. Hell, maybe they were a ghost. Why not? Ghosts could do whatever they wanted, apparently.

But, a few seats over sat an unaffiliated, unfamiliar student, and Jasper, again, paid no mind to them. Suspicious eyes may have glanced his way, but Jasper honestly... Did not care. Instead, he placed Jasmine tea grounds into his cup and tapped his wand against the side boredly, filling it to the brim with hot water. While it steeped, he took the time to groom his nails and phase the people around him out.

Even after six years, Lachlan barely knew what to think of Divination and the missed opportunity to see and evaluate the new professor only made his usual jitters even worse. In truth, he was only attending this class to keep Lucia company. Strangely, she did actually seem to know what she was doing.

Sometimes, Lachlan almost felt like he could read Lucia's mind and he would love to believe that it was some kind of seeing or divination, but he was realistic enough to realise it probably had more to do with being in the same year and the same house. He'd never felt like he could read Ed's mind, although to be fair, anyone who did read Edmund's mind would most likely end up in St Mungo's.

"'Ere."

He tried to herd his sister away from the rest of the students, but Lucia was having none of it. Like him, she'd seen the new kid; it was like waving sweets in front of a sugar deprived toddler. Without asking, she invited herself to sit down at the guy's table. Ugh, thanks, Luce.

"I'm Lachlan, this 's my sister Lucia," he made the introductions. "She fancies you."

Div-in-a-shon! Or, as Penny liked to think of it, nap-a-thon 3000. It was only her first year taking electives, but she totally had this thing down. Just because one was a Ravenclaw didn't mean they had to be a nerd as well. In fact, when you thought about it, being a Ravenclaw was argument for not being a nerd. People like Huffles and Gryffinflaws who were too stupid to figure out how to gain the most marks for the least work were nerds. Yeah.

Long story short? She was exactly the kind of student their professor hated. If only she knew. If only he knew. Not that it was going to make a difference or anything.

Of course, as soon as Penny saw that there was no wizened old crone at the front of the room she made the same assumption everyone else had done so far. The teacher was late.

"Bonus," she said, choosing the same table as Jasper Kim.

It may have been out of character, but Penny was in Ravenclaw for a reason. Sure, the older boy probably hated her guts, but most people did so that didn't phase her. Besides, from what she'd observed (and you didn't get as good at breaking rules as Penny was without paying attention) he took his studies pretty seriously. If there was anyone else whose work was worth copying, they probably didn't take this class.

The class was nearly full, mostly of ravenclaws and gryffindors, a few slytherins and hufflepuffs sat around the room. It smelt like the coffee you would get in a cheap muggle cafe, but only tray fulls of oriental tea was insight. Delilah had enjoyed divination in her first year, so she had chose to not skive this class to chain smoke on the roofs.

Around the room, most kids had started to wonder where the new professor is, and half the students seem to be crowded next to  this new kid without any house identification and who had a glazed, bored mask on. This was the new divination professor; the young teacher was sitting at the back of his own classroom, pretending to be a student, while fooling the real students. Delilah drew a pinched grin, as did a few other students (two hufflepuffs, actually no ravenclaws), they probably understood what this new Professor Kei was doing.

You see, being hogwarts students, we were used to most of the new and some of the old faculty to act really odd, as in the past year, the students had this dreamy centaur as a professor who mostly told the students to stare at clouds and frequently left the class to substitutes as he did not show up for half the year. So thus  far, in the last academic year, divination had received a goblin who taught them how to crystal gaze (and stole half the goblin-made crystal balls at the end of term); a hufflepuff ghost who died her dream substituted them and taught how to read palms and vanish card; an old ghost catcher who came to sub this class because he wanted to take a look at a look at the school portraits, and  the last supply teacher who was an animagus with turrets. the class had spent most of that lesson trying to find a bug eyed honey badger from underneath the tables.

After the class had semi-settled down, Delilah and the other knowers kept quiet, wondering what Kei had to say.

Mirai watched as the first student entered the room with a Hufflepuff insignia. She looked to be either a sixth or seven year, and had a Siamese cat following her. He smiled to himself, anyone who had a cat following them was good in his books. Mr. Paws, the tabby girl sitting on the table, had started following him around when he’d visited Athens and hadn’t stopped. He was more her wizard than she was his cat. Speaking of the half-kneazle, she was pretending to nap while watching the Siamese and student very carefully.

As he pretended to read his book, he was surprised to see the student walk over towards the back of the room, where he was, and even more surprised when she started talking to him, offering him her hand to shake. He took it, not sure how to reply. He’d planed to blend into the background of the class. Listening to the students, without talking himself. However, she’d just addressed him and now he was in the spot light. With just the two of them in the room it wasn’t like he could just pretend not to hear her, so how was the best way to answer…

“My name is Kei,” he responded, giving his last name.

He had no idea what else to say, choosing instead to pretend to read his course book, while watching the other students file in. He watched as an older Ravenclaw entered the classroom, the student seemed to be at least partly Korean, and from what Kei could tell, would do well in the class. He was also rather attractive, but Mirai quickly shook himself. He was a professor by Merlin! The kid was probably fifteen or sixteen, making him a child. Trying to go back to his pretend reading, he was interrupted by another student, this time a Slytherin.

“"I'm Lachlan, this 's my sister Lucia," the boy made the introductions. "She fancies you."

Those blue eyes… What had happened to Hogwarts while he was away! He was quite sure there hadn’t been this many attractive students when he was going here. Or he hadn’t noticed. And you’re not noticing now! He told himself. He nodded at the student as he sat down at the table.

“Kei,” he responded.

Watching as younger Ravenclaw girl walked in, and sat next to the older Ravenclaw boy, he had a feeling she was going to be trouble. From his experience as a Ravenclaw, he knew you didn’t have to be smart to be in the house. He had a distinct feeling that all those years of not paying attention in Transfigurations were coming back to bite him in the form of this student. As another Slytherin girl walked in he decided he might as well start the class. But not quite yet.

Uh, okay. It wasn't so much the response; that had been perfectly polite. It was more the lack of anything to go with it. Lachlan wondered whether perhaps the guy hadn't heard. Or maybe he was just shy. He didn't seem shy.

Oh well, if Lucia wanted to pursue him, she didn't need Lachlan's help.

"How's tha findin' Hogwarts so far?" he tried instead.

Dropping his hand, Elana restrained herself from prodding about his lack of house insignia. Exchange students were fairly normal, although they were usually sorted before being sent to classes. “Lovely to meet you. I do hope you enjoy it here.” The kid has probably been bombarded all day, he probably needs some space. She thought to herself, and in that moment it seemed that a pair of Slytherins had the exact opposite idea. The amorous glance and come hither posture told an entire story about the girl, for anyone who way paying attention.

Pulling back to a polite smile, she returned herself to a forward position and, following the example of another, spooned some tea leaves into the ornamental cup and filled it with hot water from the tip of her wand. So fat she was the only Hufflepuff in the class, but the lack of didn’t intimidate her. In fact, she didn’t seem to be able to put a single name to a face. Roger, the restless thing he was, wiggled free of her embrace and approached the slumbering cat, tail twitching playfully as he hunkered down close by.

Tugging on the fingers of her gloves, Elana peeled them from her now sweating palms, and wrapped her hands around the steaming cup. As the stiff leaves relaxed and untwisted, she allowed her hair to fall to the sides of the cup, dace flushing from the steam as she inhaled. It reminded her of home, and although she had been there for the holidays the scent of warm Jasmine brought a strong nostalgia about her.

Caelani was in no rush as she sauntered into the divination classroom, relived that it had finally been moved to a more reasonable part of the castle.

A quick scan of the room told her that probably, most of the class was already here. Divination had never been an overly popular class. People either attended because they thought it was easy or because they really did believe they had the gift. Or, in Calli's case, because she appreciated the subject for its own sake. With the headmaster's recent descent into madness and the employment of this mysterious new teacher, there was always the possibility they would be allowed to learn haruspicy this term.

Don't tell anyone, but she'd been hanging out for it.

Anyhow, her eyes lingered on two thirds of the Strangways triplets and immediately felt like gagging. It was so like them to creep on the new kid. Calli didn't know what the proper term for twincest was when it was triplets indulging in it, but she wouldn't have been surprised if Lachlan & Lucia had been trying to talk him into a three-way.

Still, Slytherins had to stick together and everything, so she chose the next table over.

As Hufflepuff with the cat stopped her line of questioning, it occurred to him that she was quite cute... No, it didn't. She was sixteen. He started repeating the words to himself: Sixteen. Sixteen. Sixteen. Sixteen! Trying to get them to sink in. It didn't seem to work.

However the Slytherin boy who'd decided to sit at his table, Lachlan was it, had decided to ask him a question. How was he finding Hogwarts so far? Well, he could answer that. The question was whether he answered like he had went he first arrived, or let them know he'd been here in the past. Saying he was a transfer student from Mahoutokoro wasn't technically a lie. He had been a transfer student from there, however that was eight years ago. Well the boy was waiting for an answer and a half truth was better than nothing. Maybe it would stop the questions, more likely it would increase them.

"I lived in Japan until recently," he said which was true, he'd spent the last six months in the country and picked up a bit of an accent when he was there, "my family moved to England however, so I'm here now."

Also true, as his family had moved to England and he had been partly taken this job because of it. He felt exhausted from the single sentence. He was used to a different kind of doublespeak, not one which involved intricate truth telling. Not that he didn't know how, he just hated doing it. Normally, he'd just lay everything out in the open. He wasn't used to actually holding his cards.

Lachlan laughed.

"This'll be a change, 'en," he said. "I've 'eard they're strict o'er there. Not that Hogwarts ain't strict, in its awn way. Just et things 'ave bin a bit insane recently."

In more ways than one.

Mirai still vividly remembered his treatment Mahoutokoro, even though it had been nearly ten years ago the months of ostracization still stung.

“Yes, Hogwarts is better,” he replied, “So, why are you taking divination?”

He’d decided to masquerade as a student, might as well get information while he did.

Lachlan shrugged.

"Luce's well good at it 'n' she tells me I make a good subject," he said.

He wiggled his fingers as though trying to emulate the mystical powers of prophecy.

"We got another brother, though he wouldnae step foot in 'ere if ya paid 'im. Prob'ly got the Power 'o Three or some shite," he went on. "Ya seen much muggle TV?"