Term 1:Divination Lesson #6: Final Class

[shoebox]

Kam entered the classroom cautiously. He noticed all the unfamiliar faces and grimaced before taking a seat near the back, folding his hands on his desk and looking at the board.

[Lisa Lycott]

Walking into the classroom that held the subject that had quickly become her favourite, Lisa took a quick look around. The desks were occupied with people she recognized and others she didn't. Taking a seat near the emptier left side of the classroom, she smiled slightly to herself, waiting for the lesson to begin with barely contained excitement.

[Prof. Algernon Moncrieff]

Algernon nodded at the new arrivals, giving a private smile to Lisa Lycott. He had great affection for the few students who had been involved in... Well, he wasn't sure what to call it. The battle? The incident? Whatever. They'd been through a lot. And she certainly seemed to be looking forward to his lesson. "Yes, very good Keifer." He stood up, walking to stand in front of his desk, leaning on it causally. "Now, as all of you should know, this is our last class of the year. I'm sure you're all very sad about that," He laughed, "But it's the truth. So, I thought instead of teaching a formal lesson... I'd see if any of you had questions. About anything?"

[Keifer Brently]

Keifer raised his hand, he was intrigued to know about the different types of divination.. "Is Alectryomancy the divination whereby a bird is allowed to pick corn grains from a circle of letters. A variation is to recite letters of the alphabet noting those at which a bird crows?" He asked... He had heard about a few different types of divination that he wasnt to familiar with. He had a few other questions about other things but he wanted to see about that one first.

[Prof. Algernon Moncrieff]

Algernon smiled at Keifer, surprised at the amount he seemed to know. "Very good, Mr. Brently! 20 points to Ravenclaw for bringing up a particularly interesting topic. Yes, that's exactly what Alectryomancy is. But that particular form of divination isn't used very often anymore. Can any one think why that might be?"

[Keifer Brently]

(Are you trying to say im stupid? =D)

Keifer looked around before speaking again "Because the types of birds they used arent around anymore, they are a dying race and very hard to find, plus its not a very reliable divinatory tactic now theres better ways of doing it" Keifer looked at the professor, unsure whether or not he got it right.

[Prof. Algernon Moncrieff]

Algernon ran a hand through his hair thoughtfully, considering Keifer's answer. "Well..." he began, "Yes, it's true that more intuitive species of birds, the ones which give the most acurate answers, are very scarse now. Still, it doesn't matter all that much what species of bird is used. But your second answer is actually the opposite of the truth. Alectryomancy is actually one of the more reliable methods of divining, because there is no human element. It is purely the bird, that is, nature. So you get truer answers. The biggest reason it is simply human arrogance. We tend to prefer divining by invading, by shoving ourselves into the time-line with visions or our own readings. One of the biggest reasons, actually, that so few humans can read the stars. We're unwilling to just let them whisper to us... we want to -read- them. 10 points to Ravenclaw."

[Keifer Brently]

"But wouldnt Bibliomancy, cartomancy or even catoptromancy be more effective? Chiromancy is another one, it may not be the most effective but even so... There are more effective ways of divining than Alectryomancy" he spoke. He was in the mood to just say anything that came into his mind, whether he was right or wrong.

(I sound like the right swot.....)

[Prof. Algernon Moncrieff]

Algernon chuckled, raising an eyebrow and Keifer. "Looks like someone has been doing his research. 15 points. Bibliomancy is basically useless. Books are written by people. If you had a book of truely randomly generated words, out of which you picked truely random ones somehow, you might actually get some sort of message. But otherwise it's too influenced by the author and yourself. Cartomancy can be very accurate, but, as with stars, only if the reader will surrender himself to the Tarot cards, listen to themselves instead of just his own opinions or impressions. As for catoptromancy..." He scoffed, "I wouldn't even consider it worth considering. Far too voliitile, far too inaccurate. Chiromancy is certainly very useful for divining truths about a specific person and their own path, but it isn't too useful for anything else."

[Lisa Lycott]

Lisa listened to the Professor and Keifer with a small smile at first, before it steadily grew into a frown. She dropped her quill, abandoning her notes, and instead leaned back in her chair, listening as best she could. "Erm, Professor... This won't be on any of our exams, will it?" She asked sheepishly, staring at her jumbled notes with slight amusement.

[Keifer Brently]

"What can i say? I get bored easy" He smiled "Comes in handy though." He had another thought on Biblomancy "Wouldnt the ancient texts that came from Biblomancy be virtually true? I mean... Someone has got to have discovered divination and the person who did probably recorded his or her findings and turned them into the books, eventually which, span off the books and texts we use today... I mean, everything is based on fact, whether its fiction or not. It has to have had some form of grounding, if not it would have been impossible to write the texts we have" Keifer pursisted. He looked at the proffessor, he waited for his answer wondering whether he had possibly gone a bit far.

[Prof. Algernon Moncrieff]

Algernon laughed, looking at Lisa. "No, no, of course this won't be on any exams. Still, that doesn't mean you all shouldn't listen!" Back to Kiefer, "See, that's exactly what I'm talking about -- Human arrogance. No one discovered Divination. Divination has been all around us and in us forever. Every star in the sky, ever bend in the branch of a tree, every freckle on your skin and every twist of our DNA has a message. They all whisper to us, and all we have to do to understand is listen. Books of Divination are useless for anything but teaching us about particular forms of divining, and telling us how to use them. They can't really teach us to use them, because that isn't something which can be taught. I can tell you how to see into the future, to see into the past, to learn things about other people which even they do not know, and even to discover things about yourself. But if you don't open your mind to it, to the world and to everything." Algernon took a deep breath, before running a hand through his hair, cruckling bashfully. "10 points to Ravenclaw for giving me the chance to rant."

[Keifer Brently]

Keifer looked at him, a smirk showing on his face. "So if no-one actually discovered that they could do this, and that things whisper to them... How are you stood there knowing exactly what you do?" He said slyly. Looking around he looked back to the professor "So... I have the typical human arrogance because i simply want to find out more things? Asking questions is what helps out young minds develop. And if divination cant be taught, how can you teach us? Yeah you teach us how to look here and there but its still connected with Divination... My opinon is that was a contradiction in itself." Keifer kept watching the professor and smiled "So theres only certain divinatory tactics that are useful? I refuse to believe that because... Different tactics work differently for different people"

[Prof. Algernon Moncrieff]

Algernon smirked, nodding. It had been a long time since he had been as engaged in a discussion as he was with Keifer, and though he worried that he was excluding the other students, he didn't really care. Oh, he was definetly going to ask Keifer to be his apprentice next term. "Ah, Mr. Brently, but the flaw in your logic is that in fact, no human ever did discover Divination. Haven't you ever wondered why the centaurs hate us so much? They told us how to read the stars because they pitied us. We could not See, so they pitied us. They did not understand that the stars were in them already, in their very blood, and so they could hear the whispers in ways no one else could. They hate us because we listen for mere moments, catching half finished frases, half spoken thoughts, and from these we have the audacity to believe we understand the world. To believe we have some control of it, that we can divine ourselves instead of waiting to be told." He shrugged. "All divination tactics work to some extent. There will always be a message. But whether it is a message from the universe or a message from humanity, that's the question. 10 more points."

[Keifer Brently]

Keifer sat there, his hand on his chin, the professor had put him in a spot and it took him a while to think of something to say. He looked up to the professor "Again, a contradiction. Somebody did discover it, even if it wasnt a human. The centaurs were born and bred into the ways of reading the stars, they were the ones first with the sight and they passed on their knowledge." He said with a thought. "So really, there is no flaw in my logic, possibly a little, but there is also fact there, just as it is anywhere you look. Nobody knows exactly where things came from, there are a lot of unanswered questions in this universe, unanswerable questions, but at one point, there was an answer. There has to be an answer for the question to be there in the firstplace. Whether it is lost or not. As for have i wondered why the centaurs hate us? No i havnt, they have their ways, i have mine. So basically, it is their own fault they hate us because they gave us their knowlege to some extent. That is their problem, not mine. The human race isnt as adapted to life as we think, we take things for granted, were like a disease, we destory everything we touch. If humans believe that they understand the world then we are more stupid. Even so, the divination works different for every person. Some things will have different meanings for other people, one thing could mean something to you, but something entirely different for me" He finished looking slightly abashed after his rant.