Harry Potter: The art of divination

I stared intently at the hat, I was a mix between amused and infuriated.

"Regulus Black!" Professor McGonagall shouted

The boy strode forward, and I could tell he was nervous by his eyes. He would peak at them every few seconds seemingly having an inner battle between his heart and his mind.

I sat my wand on the table in front of me pointing upwards, I let it drop as he sat in the chair.

*thunk* my wand fell facing a particular house

"Ravenclaw," I muttered to myself, Filius and a few other professors looked at me curiously

I just looked at my wand, I saw Slughorn roll his eyes.

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat bellowed making me smirk

As Regulus stood from his seat he walked calmly over to his table, I could tell a burden seemed to be dropped from his shoulders.

As the sorting ceremony continued I kept using the divining rod technique on anyone I thought seemed interesting, by now the professors and some students that saw realized that it wasn't dumb luck.

Looking at my fellow professors I smirked, "I'm not teaching divination for no reason,"

As the last kid got sorted Albus stood from his seat, a grandfatherly smile spread across his face, "Welcome old and new students to Hogwarts! I hope we can all enjoy this year, as always the forbidden forest is not to be ventured in." his tone grew ominous then back to normal, "at this time I would like to introduce our new divination professor Morpheus.... Everglade," his eyes were now twinkling rapidly in amusement

My smile turned wider if he thought for a second that a childish trick like that would get under my skin he would be sorely mistaken.

I wasn't ashamed of my family name, nor was I scared to let it out. I just am not used to using it with my introductions.

However, it seems that everyone else was surprised except for the muggle-borns and less knowledgeable half-bloods, and pure blood. Many prominent families' heirs now looked at me with barely concealed interest.

Some Slytherins were practically vibrating in their seats waiting for the feast to end so they could send a letter home.

The sorting hat stopped drooping and began to point straight, though, for other reasons than the ones the children had, a smirk played across my lips as I stood up.

"Thank you for the introduction Albus," I said with a wide smile causing his own to strain a little

McGonagall looked at me as if I just committed a sin by calling Albus by his first name.

"Students, I will be teaching divination to those who wish to take it as an elective and I urge you to forget about all things you have heard about the art. Yes, I called of an art because divination is so much more than the meager and useless professors you have had in the past made it out to seem. The gift of having your inner eye open helps tremendously in the field but, it does not define you, I have met many masters in Divination who do not have their inner eye open. Make no mistakes it will be a hard subject to learn for everyone but, if you take my class I hope you remember one thing. The key is to believe," I sat back down when I finished my speech

"Thank you for that Professor, now let's sing!" Albus exclaimed

-break-

It was about halfway through the meal when I spotted the most interesting thing, someone sitting at the Slytherin table with raggedy robes was practicing Occlumency, it was quite a sight to see especially since he seemed rather proficient for a beginner.

If he is taught more about the mind he could truly be something special one day, unfortunately, even though my mind shields were spectacular Occlumency was not one of my specialties.

That lay in my brother's skill set.

Over at the Gryffindor table, I spotted a few people who could be good at transfiguration more specifically learning to be an Animagus.

That's all I can see, for now, I have all year to find hidden gems among the students. With what is coming soon I could use some soldiers, I mean students.

As the feast ended I removed myself from the dining hall, I must prepare for my first class after all.

-Narcissa black pov -

I walked through the corridors with my friends, they were talking about how excited they were for divination. I have to admit I am also excited, my mother and father would have never allowed me to take the class if it wasn't for Grandpa wanting someone to take it. Being the youngest eligible to take an elective I selflessly volunteered.

Divination has always interested me, I don't care if it's a sham but I just really like to learn about that type of stuff it relaxes me after a long day studying about healing.

Some healing professionals even suggested some forms of divination can help healers identify the safest method. Of course, they were laughed at and ridiculed, who would heal someone based on something like that?

Well, I still enjoyed the arguments they made to support their papers.

As I walked into the classroom the new lighting took a while to get used to, while the castle corridors were well lit the divination classroom was darker, there was just enough light for us to be able to see.

The whole room practically screamed one single word.

"Mysterious~" my friend Shelia finished my thoughts

We began to all take our seats, on each desk laid a crystal ball, a deck of tarot cards, and a wooden rod with intricate carvings.

The teacher walked in, and I saw him glance around the room barely stopping to look at anyone. His skin was so pale I thought he might have been a vampire.

Maybe even a vampire has more color than him.

He stood in front of the classroom and began his lesson.

-Narrator pov -

Morpheus stood confidently in front of the third-year students, a slight smirk playing across his lips as they all took in the ambiance of his classroom.

"Welcome class, today we will just begin with a little background on divination and some of its most common methods of use. We will also broach the topic of natural and taught divination experts." Morpheus said his soft but powerful voice enthralled the students

His clear eyes scanned the room seeing if everyone had a quill and paper ready, "Divination was first brought to the wider scene in ancient Rome, a wizarding family birthed a true soothsayer the first of her kind, she went on to tell many fortunes and many riddles, most believed her to be crazy. That was of course until some of the things she said began to become true. But even before that divination has always been used just never named, people would sacrifice animals to the gods and watch the patterns in the blood, people would watch flowers bloom and wither to decide the prosperity of the next season. Some tried to replicate these feats outside of the select few but they were always wrong, why?" he stated every single student leaned forward slightly hoping to hear a mystical answer

"Belief," his answer stunned the students

Morpheus continued, "Magic is something, not all hold belief in. If you were to go up to a muggle and say you are a witch they would laugh in your face. But it's real, it's something that is the single most important thing to all witches and wizards." he stopped

Smiling at the eager looks he continued the lesson, "Let's take it in another direction, all of you know the Lumos spell yes?"

They all nodded.

"Show of hands who visualized the light at the tip of your wands as you said the incantation for the first time?"

About one-fourth of the class raised their hands, "And of you how many were successful the first time?"

Only two kept their hands up, "good, and try to remember back to your first lesson. Now the people who just put their hands up and raise them once more if you were not confident and didn't believe the spell would work,"

Every hand that went down now shot back up, some looked confused but others looked like they understood what he was leading to.

"Now everyone, raise your hand if you didn't visualize the spell but believed you could do it and it worked,"

Some kids raised their hands, "and I bet the rest of you just didn't know what you were doing?" he asked

The ones who didn't raise their hands nodded sheepishly, "As most of you have discovered from my little tangent is that belief fuels most spells, without it you will never be able to cast more complex spells. Spells like Lumos can be cast with pure belief while more complex spells need extra steps like visualization. The same can be said for divination if you do not believe nothing will work,"

Looking at the time he saw the class was over, "sorry class we will talk more in the next lesson, for homework you have to attempt to cast the Lumos spell purely with belief no visualization, I will know if you cheat,"

As the students began to file out a Ravenclaw boy walked over to Morpheus with a thoughtful look, "Professor, how come we were all able to remember and discern our feelings from the first charms class that was two years ago?"

Morpheus smiled, "Good observation, it's the incense I'm burning it helps focus the mind and allows others to relive and pull certain memories to the front more clearly,"

The student smiled and left the room.

-end-

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