Is your future waxing? [Intermediate Divinations] on Elective Hall

Giselle Duell

September 17, 2021 11:15 PM

Is your future waxing? [Intermediate Divinations] by Giselle Duell

The divinations room was filled with candlelight, more so than normal. The tables were set with ornate candelabras. Tall candles stood erect at the very top, slowly burning away the melted wax running down their sides and dripping into removable metal bowls. Under those bowls were stouter candles, blazing away keeping the collected wax drippings in a molten state. Apart from the candelabras there was a larger, matching metal bowl at each seat. This bowl was filled halfway with water.

Giselle strode around the room again before her students arrived, checking to make sure the candles were all still lit. This was yet another thing that her ‘seeing’ spell could not accomplish. It would not reveal to her whether or not there was a dancing flame upon the wick of a candle. Her hand and the heat of the tiny fire had to suffice. She only burned herself once in the process when she allowed her mind to drift off to the first staff meeting they had held this year. She hoped in the coming week or two to be able to devote some research into seeing if there was in fact a link between her prophecy of last year and Xavier. She was also quite glad to need to really worry about interacting with him much at this point. Next year though, he may decide to take her class. A lot can happen in a year.

She had finished her circuit by the time the first of the students arrived and was by her desk again as they entered. Her outfit was surprisingly coordinated in comparison to what she had been wearing by the end of last year. Valentine had insisted upon revisiting her wardrobe and fixing all of the coloring labels that had gotten lost. Giselle didn’t expect them to last much longer into this year than they had last, and it didn’t really bother her much. She had other things to worry about than if her hat, dress and scarves all matched.

Once everyone had arrived she began the lesson. “Good afternoon everyone. I hope you weren’t counting on more tea today, if you are in dire need you will just need to find some after class.” She gave one of those hopeful smiles to indicate that it was supposed to be a joke, but she wasn’t sure if it actually was one. “Anyway, we are continuing the unit on symbolism and interpretation by examining another technique that follows a similar methodology to that of tea leaves.” Giselle then gestured towards the candles on the tables. “Today we will be taking a brief look at Carrowmancy, or using candle wax to divine the future. This is done by dripping molten wax onto hot water and watching for the shapes and motions that are created. As you are dripping the wax, focus on a question you would like an answer to, whisper it to your wax if you like. It may help in the same way that using spell words gets better results than casting without them."

Giselle paused for a moment to let the instructions sink in before continuing. "If you will recall, page thirty-seven in your book describes some of the basic patterns that are widely applicable. We used them with the tea leaves. Page one hundred and sixty-two has some more specifics on Carrowmancy. Use them both, compare and contrast them as you experiment. Your homework will be to write up how the different medians convey their messages differently, but also when one method may be preferable to another.” She wondered how many 'Tea is better when you are thirsty' responses she would get.

“As usual, I encourage you to discuss your process and findings with your partner while you experiment in class.” Her sightless eyes swept the class, “If you run into any trouble, I will be around to help out. Also, I ask that you please do your best not to light anything or anyone on fire. You may begin.”

2 Giselle Duell Is your future waxing? [Intermediate Divinations] 1517 1 5

Mab

September 26, 2021 3:10 PM

I don't know. It may be burning. by Mab

Mab was glad there was not any more tea today. She didn't like tea to begin with, and that was before she started reading too much into the dredges left on the bottom of a cup. She was taking Divination because it sounded like one of the more esoteric of the fey magics; always a bit hard to pin down, and unlikely to be affected by her self-taught methods of harnessing magic because it was itself a new way to harness magic that was different than what the other classes taught. She could see why a lot of people didn't take it seriously, why so many people had trouble with it. It was hard to learn a new way to work with magic that was utterly different from what you were used to, and divinations was as entirely different from waving a wand as waving a wand was different from being granted wishes by the fey folk.

Mab's problem with divinations wasn't that she thought it was bogus. It was that she believed it was real, and there had been some uncomfortable readings lately in her teacups. Nothing she could quite pin down as definitely foul, but it left her with a vague feeling of unease.

Maybe Carrowmancy wouldn't be quite so ominous. Maybe it had just been the nasty taste of the tea, or the mild grossness of lumpy tea leftovers that were putting her in a bad mood and affecting her readings. These things were affected by magical and emotional auras and stuff, right? Molten wax sounded way more interesting.

She had no intention of whispering her question as a focus. In her experience so far, Mab's magical focus seemed to work better without words. Also, she didn't want anybody eavesdropping on what she was going to try to get a reading on. That was no business of anybody's but hers.

Mab flipped to the appropriate pages in her book, and placed markers there so she could find them again. After two full years of taking Divination, she only briefly glanced over the basic patterns, as she knew most of those very well already, and kept her book open to the page specific to Carrowmancy. She raised her eyebrows in surprise and let out a light huff of disbelief as they were actually instructed to not light anyone on fire.

She stole a glance around the classroom to make sure nobody was feeling a sudden rebellious urge to commit arson (she was a prefect, after all, so this was kind of her job now, and it had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of rebellious urge in her own self that might be looking to see if she was the only one who felt it).

Pushing aside all thoughts of arson, Mab focused back on the open book in front of her. She took a few minutes to familiarize herself with the new symbolism that was unique to molten wax movements. When she felt she wouldn't miss anything of significance, she took her burning candle and dripped some of the wax into the hot water provided.

What will I do with my life? she thought at it with great intensity. She had her CATS coming up this year. She intended to do well in all of them, but she kind of wanted to know where she should focus her efforts the most; what efforts would be worth her while.

The mauve wax dripped into her bowl forming little shark teeth as the molten droplets hit the cold water and constricted, floating at the top. She let the wax continue to drip into the water, skittering around and forming into the groups. She tried to get some to land on top of other wax bits to create shapes more complex than the little shark teeth drops, until she eventually had what she was willing to call a thestral. It looked like a skeletal horse skull with a lump of wax for the body and little shark teeth clinging enough like legs and a tail to form the overall impression of 'thestral'. Another smaller grouping looked like a bird, while two smaller groups coalesced together to look like a snake.

Clearly, her wax was telling her she was going to work with animals a lot. Extra studying for CoMC it was.

The only grouping that wasn't somehow reminding her of an animal was a set near the top of her bowl that could be interpreted as a starburst. Stars meant success. So she was going to be successful working with animals, according to this. If she was interpreting it correctly. Thestrals did have some other symbolism that was rather darker, and that was definitely her largest wax grouping, and skulls meant danger (though those usually were depicted as human skulls not equine).

She took some notes on her results, then turned to her neighbor and said, "I will either be successful doing something with animals, or I am going to face danger, possibly from some animals. My wax made a thestral, a snake, and a bird," she pointed out the shapes formed by her little shark teeth drips. Though in the time it had taken to write down her observations, the bird and starburst had combined to make a fish. "Or maybe it's fish," she recanted her bird declaration. She pointed at the thestral's head, "and now that I look at it again, that could maybe be a dragon's head instead of horse skull." Either way, it was still an animal, and a rather intimidating one at that. Maybe DADA would be a good class to keep too.

"What did you get?"

1 Mab I don't know. It may be burning. 1473 0 5

Jasper Brockert

October 25, 2021 9:24 PM

So you see a fire? by Jasper Brockert

His aunt was pregnant and about to have her baby soon...and Jasper was utterly horrified . Okay, yes, he was really hoping for Aunt Helena to deliver a healthy baby, because of course, he wouldn't want his little cousin to have some sort of serious health problem caused by a birth defect. And it would utterly crush his aunt if she had a stillbirth when she had her hopes up so much that she was going to finally have the baby that she'd tried for for so long.

Still, Aunt Helena having a baby also meant Uncle Eustace would be a father and the thought of that made Jasper literally sick to his stomach. There was no way that was not going to be a complete and total disaster. He knew that with any of the scenarios that he had imagined that it would not be good for this child. Of course, that did reinforce the Teppenpaw's feelings that he hoped the baby was healthy...because he knew full well that any child with physical ailments, regardless of gender, would be belittled by Uncle Eustace incessantly considering how much he mocked Miles for having so many allergies.

However, even a perfectly healthy child would inevitably be mistreated by Jasper's uncle. Unless it was a boy whom Uncle Eustace managed to mold in his own image. Which would still be completely terrible. The world did not need more people like Uncle Eustace any more than it did people like Topaz. Such a person would just cause more misery in the world. If this was what happened, if the child ended up being a boy who was like his father, well, he'd go on to torment and bully others and it would continue on in a vicious cycle.

On the other hand, if this child turned out to be a boy, he could also end up in the same position that Jasper and Chris had, where he developed a complete aversion to all things Quidditch and sports because of the sort of tactics Uncle Eustace tended to use. And unlike the two of them, this poor child would have no escape, nobody to protect him. Jasper didn't believe for a second that Aunt Helena would be able to.

Or what if the baby was a girl . Not that anyone was mentioning that possibility to Uncle Eustace, after that not going over well when someone had tried doing so before, but Merlin help her and her mother both if that was the case!

It was just...sad. A new baby should be something that brought joy and happiness to a family. Jasper remembered when Aunt Shannon was pregnant with Uriah. Uncle Ben had been so excited about having baby U and completing their family. Nobody was worried about anything being a problem. Same when Aunt Madeleine was pregnant with Miles. It should be like that but it wasn't this time. Jasper didn't need to use any form of Divination to know that it would be a complete disaster.

He sighed as he contemplated what question to ask his...burning candle. However, before Jasper could come up with something, Mab spoke up next to him. "Oh, well, let's hope it's the former. I mean, if you like animals. Though I suppose even if you don't, being successful with them is better than facing danger from them" He replied. "Though I suppose it could be both, you could be successful escaping danger from them" The fourth year looked back at his candle. "Maybe that's what I should ask about. I'm still trying to think of a question" Jasper explained,

11 Jasper Brockert So you see a fire? 1496 0 5