#tealeaves & omens

[siobhanchiffon]

Grey faces - Tealeaves & Omens version 😈

[lilyrachelcassidy]

Tessomancy

A/N: Here we go with the next drabble! Enjoy (: // Masterlist

Summary: Reader and Draco decide to sign up for Divination classes, which - with time - turns out to be not the best idea. However, one day or rather one forecast can change their mind.

Words: 1k

Warnings: swearing 

Tags: @drawlfoy

“I’m so rubbish in that,” you muttered to yourself in a complaining tone, shoving your teacup roughly over the table.

You lifted your head and your gaze wandered over the other side of the classroom, just to see your best friend, Draco, examining his own cup with tealeaves and having this same unsatisfied grimace on his lips. When he caught your eye he shook his head slightly, his face expressing nothing but supreme innocence.

And at that very moment, you knew it had been a mistake listening to him.  

Both of you had decided to sign up for the Division course (an elective subject for third-year students), all thanks to Draco’s initiative. You - in contrast to him - had insisted on joining the Study of Ancient Runes. But after some quarrels and many intense attempts of convincing, you had finally given in and had let Draco make a choice. And as it turns out now, it wasn’t the best idea.

You shifted uncomfortably at your seat and impatiently waited for the lesson to end up. You began to wonder if there would be a time when Draco would take a step ahead to overcome his big ego and apologize for his wrong decisions. Maybe if he just-

“And what about you, my child?” the hoarse voice sounded next to your ear, making you blench at the sudden sound. Glancing over to the side, your eyes set on professor Trelawney whose gaze was absently fixed on your figure. She was smiling broadly. “What do you see in your cup?”

You frowned and took a quick peek into the dish, then into a book. There was nothing but black, drenched grouts.“Mmm... I reckon it’s- it’s a sun? That means -“ you bent over the book again “-that means happiness. So, something happy shall happen to me any time soon, I guess. ”

She nodded and hummed in the understanding of your words, but took the cup in her palms and started to check it herself. Then she pursed her lips and adjusted her enormous spectacles on her crooked nose.

“Oh dear,” she mumbled under her breath and you rolled your eyes, preparing yourself to hear next, pitiless fate about your nearby future and inevitable death. Or, at least, it was all you had been foretold on each previous lesson. “Well yes, you might have misread my child. The omen of happiness is usually mistaken with the omen of love.” she laid the cup on the table and continued. “It’s a giant, growing plant which develops its roots in a new, glorious feeling. In the feeling of love.”  

Professor Trelawney grinned at you insanely and you blinked in half-surprise, not thoroughly expecting this kind of prophecy to come out from her mouth. You weren’t exactly sure if she was aware of her words considering a pungent smell of brandy beaming from her and awareness of her drinking habits. But still, you could feel as your face strangely begins to heat-up.

You opened your mouth to retort but before knew, professor Trelawney already vanished from your sight and disappeared among other parts of the room, leaving you all alone with your confusion. You sat motionless for a short moment, rethinking what she had just said. But after a while, your head turned again towards Draco who - you noted - was discretely watching your discourse with a mysterious glint of interest in his eyes.  

So when the class had been dismissed a few minutes later and when you had spotted him leaning on a door-frame with anticipation painted all over his face, you found yourself grinning at him and his exceptional predictability.

He arched your his eyebrow at you and you suppressed a giggle. “What did she tell you this time? Another positive forecast?” he asked sarcastically.

You laughed lightly and nudged him with your elbow. “First of all, I can still remember it’s your fault of me dying every fucking week,” you sent him an amused glance and he protruded his lower lip in a sulky pout. “But seems that Mrs. Lunatic changed her mindset ‘bout my destiny.”

Draco furrowed. “You mean?” he asked as you began to stroll over and walk down the stairs with him following shortly after.

“She kept talking some nonsense about finding love and so on,” you confessed, shaking your head. Draco chuckled slightly.

“Well then, I can’t wait to meet your supposed romance partner,” he commented cheekily, sending you a wink with a wide beam curling on his lips. You smacked the top of his head playfully and he instantly touched the place you had just struck.

Then he groaned loudly. “Ouch! What was that for?”

“As to remind you that we don’t live in some kind of ass world fairy tale. There is no prince on a white horse, nor anyone else who could rescue me from bloody dull reality.” you scoffed and rolled your eyes.  

The conversation distracted you so much that you tripped over the stair and felt as your legs start to slip out from underneath you. Preparing yourself to fall over and meet with the tough ground, you were surprised when the pair of strong arms smoothly wrapped around your waist. Your eyes widened and you could feel a sharp pang of anxiety overfilling your chest.

“Gotcha!” said Draco with a satisfied tone of the voice and you could detect as a strong blush appeared on your cheeks. He dragged your body back on your feet and helped you keep the balance. “Although, I’m quite not sure if you deserved my help at all, after hitting me.”  

“Thanks anyway,” you whispered quietly, still feeling a little bewildered after the situation.

It took you a while to realize how short distance was between you and Draco.  

You grunted, taking a step back and turning away to move on. But before you could take another stride, Draco grasped your hand and leaned over to your ear with his warm breath tickling your neck softly. “Maybe your prince is much closer than you actually think..”

[dramionediscussion]

I read the recent post about divination, and now I have some serious doubts. Like did I misunderstood entirely what the whole divination thing canonically is? I’ve read books couple of times, seen movies once, but it’s been awhile. I’ve read a small library of fanfics (99% Dramione), so I am no way a HP canon-lore expert. But that post left genuinely puzzled, like how does it go canonically? Was Hermione basically right or not? I would be grateful, if someone could either correct or confirm, whether my understanding of HP canon is true or not, please! As I understood it, divination sort of is “real”, but in a quite nuanced way, and that Trelawney’s class didn’t (and probably couldn’t) teach “true divination”, and it was a waste of time for students wishing to learn that skill. Certain people simple are “true seers”, and this clairvoyance ability cannot be acquired or learned (at least in a controlled or widely understood way). It was heavily hinted at, that the talent is in-born, and possibly entirely hereditary, or at least considerably so (the reason for Trelawney’s job interview was that she was related to a famous seer). Although, it’s also implied that astromancy is an exception, and via astronomy even those who are not seers can foresee future events to some degree (though it seems there’s large qualitative difference between these predictions and those made by “true seers”. Astromancy seems to be predicting very generalized trends, instead of specific events or happenings of individual people). However, this is more an impression one gets by the gravitas and dignity granted to Firenze and centaurs contra Trelawney (I think, Firenze did make accurate predictions, but they were so board and vague, thus is not clear whether they were just educated guesses or true foresight). If I recall no true predictions are made by any other method (Trelawney taught and practiced at least cartomancy, tasseomancy, and crystallomancy. Maybe also chiromancy and some others, which I don’t remember atm). More than that, it seems that true prophecies are not produced via any method, but rather received uncontrollably and involuntarily without any conscious effort or will. All this leaves many open questions and a lot of room for quite different interpretations. The only seer we see in a great detail is Trelawney, and it’s not clear whether her circumstances were universally applicable or just particular to her. Like, do all true seers make their predictions by falling into an uncontrollable trance, or do some of those methods work for some other seers at least? Can this talent be cultivated or honed in any way? Can one manipulate circumstances for receiving these predictions? At least some portion of the wizarding world seems to believe, that divination is accessible to basically anybody, because the ministry approves teaching of it, and there’s learning material and curriculum beyond Trelawney. Though, the ministry seems to treat reading tealeaves different from true seers’ predictions, which are gathered and organized in by the department of mysteries, unlike Harry’s or Ron’s schoolwork. There’s also a faint possibility that some form of milder divination is possible (something like predicting whether you will have a good day at the work by reading tarot cards), and Trelawney was just incompetent at teaching it. Existence of true seers doesn’t exactly logically contradict existence of lesser divination by non-seers. Still, the view that the only real divination is by done true seers (and possibly astromancy) seems to be canonically most likely, or the one JKR tried to convey. These other forms of divinations and omens are just wizarding superstitions some believe, including at least partly the ministry itself (like do the wizengamot or ministers consult diviners before making decisions. Or is it taught simply due a political inertia, like some atavistic custom or tradition from the past. Or perhaps divination is not there to teach the art, but to screen for potential seers from the youth). I think, Hermione did acknowledge fairly early that there are true predictions, by true seers (at least I don’t think she ever objected when the whole chosen one prophecy was brought up, and she seemed to treat the affair with a total sincerity). Even if Trelawney was mostly a fraud, and her class a waste of time (my canonical understanding), and she was right in her criticism. It might not still be the real reason she quit the class, or it could’ve been at least only partial reason. If we imagine a different turn of events, and let’s say that Trelawney would’ve taken an instant liking to her, and praised her efforts and rewarded her with approval and good grades. Would’ve she dropped the course anyway, or rationalized herself believing truthiness and benefits of Trelawney’s class? Would her general opinion about divination change, if she was admired and accepted by her female peers, instead of ignored and shunned? As I interpret Hermione’s character, it’s impossible to give a good answer to that, because in the canonical version the truth about Trelawney and divination in general is also both socially and emotionally convenient to Hermione. Being a multidimensional character, it’s very hard to say, how she would act in different circumstances, or what are all factors, which possibly influence her behavior and choices. I think, it’s a fair characterization to say that she clearly prices truth and objectivity in knowledge, beyond simple social or emotional utility. She pursues knowledge and truth at least partly for her own curiosity, pleasure and integrity. In the other hand, it’s also true that she places a great importance and trust on authorities and she can be extremely authoritarian in knowledge (though her hierarchy is not exactly the official authority like the ministry, or the Daily Prophet, but this informal community of wizarding experts and academics who produce the books she loves, relies and trusts so much. And of course Dumbledore and Mcgonagall, and other exemplary Light side wizards and witches). She craves attention, praise and acceptance and recognition of not only authorities and the wider wizarding world, but also those around her. I don’t think, there’s plausible answer for that, if she had a serious internal conflict between those two different sides of her personality. Canonically there’s no conflict, and her course is relatively clear on the matter. I would rate both outcomes in the case of conflict equally likely. That she would’ve continued divination, if she was “good” at it, and also that she would’ve dropped it, because her academic integrity. There are situations in which, she socially and personally inconveniences herself greatly, like telling Mcgonagall about the Firebolt, but it’s not exactly comparable, because she also believed that Harry could’ve been in a mortal danger. Besides, even if there was exactly comparable situation canonically, people are not always consistent on their priorities, and they might sometimes act quite differently in almost exactly similar situations. Personally I am quite conflicted about JKR’s whole “Hermione is not like the other simpering girls”-bit. In most situations, when it raises its head, I find it quite infuriating (especially with her appearance). Often it is just a desperate and egotistical way to promote oneself, and denigrate feminine traits and behavior. In the other hand, I’ve witnessed this happening in my own life (not to myself, but to people around me). Not a gender dysphoria or anything, but more like tomboys and girls who simply were not interested in things almost all other girls in their age-group were, and they got heavily ostracized and bullied for that by majority of girls. I can understand that certain women genuinely feel like that, and kind of objectively are not like other girls (in good and ill), and have issues with female friendships and female peer-groups. It’s hard to say how common that is, but also I don’t like this idea of trying meme into reality that all women are automatically natural friends and allies with each other, and that the fiction should also reflect this. Or that only reason why this isn’t so, is some outdated beliefs or cultural practices, which can be easily remedied by simple education. Frankly, I don’t think it’s real to that extent, and trying to pretend it is, will lead to harmful outcomes for women, who will go in their lives trusting in it. Women do have shared interests as women, and there’s shared commonalities with other women, which are not shared by men. There’s kind of a sisterhood of mutual understanding and joy in friendships and kinship with other women as women. But in the other hand, there’s also a lot of rivalries and conflicts within the same sisterhood.    Still, the way she disparagingly frames Lavender’s and Parvati’s interest in a divination, as silly, superfluous and fake, is more in line with the former approach. It’s rather cheap jab towards astrology and women who enjoy or practice it. It’s hard to know even where to start with that, because women basically never base serious decisions in it. Mostly it provides them a framework and starting point to discuss different temperaments and personality types in people. Also, it’s just a little (harmless) excitement and bringing some enchantment back to the dreary and banal world and mundane routines most people suffer through. Nobody lost their house because of astrology, unlike men’s many astrologies, like cryptocurrency and “beating the markets” investment models and schemes. Besides, interestingly enough there’s some truth to astrology. unlike I-LOVE-SCIENCE midwit sceptic-bros believe :P

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Edit:

According to the HP WIKIA:

Divination is a subject taught at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It teaches methods of divining the future, or gathering insights into future events, through various rituals and tools. The magic taught in this class, as well as the ability to say prophetic things is a branch of magic referred to as "divination."

So basically, while yes you have to possess the ability to "see", you as a regular witch or wizard can learn certain skills for divining. (Divining is an actual thing; To divine is the discover something by guesswork or intuition).

The WIKIA also says:

Divination is an elective subject available beginning in a student's third year. Students study a myriad of ways to scry information about the future, including tea dregs, crystal balls, visions, and Astrology and horoscope charts. Other methods of divining the future include smoke patterns, dreams, tarot cards, and the interpretation of prophecies, though the latter is quite rare. Guides and textbooks allow students of Divination to discern or translate what observed symbols intend to mean.

It's like here in the real world, some people believe in these things, others don't. But I think in the magical world, I'll personally will be more likely to believe in these things. And they seem like something kids should be exposed to a bit.

I think the problem was with the teacher. She probably wasn't the best person to teach and introduce these ancient and maybe not so widely used methods to the children. She is seen in the books/movies as bit of a nutjob, but she made that predicition about Voldy and Harry and so Dumbledore hired her to keep close incase she made probably more prophecies. It's funny though, everyone laughs about this subject and mocks it's teacher, but they whole heartedly believe the prophecy because Dumbledore says he believes it. Harry and his friends even broke into the Ministry to find it. So they take his word, but completely disrespects the actual person who made the prophecy in the first place. Makes sense -_-.

Hermione, she is a muggleborn, so of course she immdiately goes with logic and reasoning and science. It must have been hard for her to learn that magic is real and learn about this new world (even if she was excited about it). The thing with other subjects is that the results are immediate. When she casts a spell, it works automatically, it does what she told it to do. When she makes a potion, it looks/smells they way the books said it would and after using it, she sees/feels the effects. Divination isn't like that, you cannot get immediate results. You have to wait years for some things to happen but it may not always since other factors can influence it and completely change it.

So even in this magical world, she still operates with logic and facts and immediate results, just like in the muggle world. That's why it was difficult for her to "get" divination. Add on a rather incompetant teacher, a stressful third year where she overloads herself; it makes sense for her to just call it bullshit and quit. Maybe if the teacher did indeed like her and gave her praises, she may have not left so easily; she gets praises in other subjects and yes it does seem like she craves it. Hermione is incredibly Type A!

JKR admitted to basically modelling Hermione as herself. So if you think that Hermione's character was unnecessarily mean to Lavender and Parvati, JKR wrote it that way, maybe because she herself feels that way about women/girls like that. Should she have done that? No. Many girls loved Hermione, many saw themselves as her. There isn’t many nerdy girls who save the day in movies and shows and books. So reading about Hermione being popular and smart and liked and having awesome friends and saving the world, defeating evil, was amazing! But as an adult, looking back on things, you realise that Hermione is very much a  "not like other girls" girl, and not in a good way. She is very condesending especially to other girls or people who are not as smart as her. And that isn't a good message to send to girls who relate to this character. And it tells you a lot about JKR herself (if her twitter didn't already)!

- Lisa

[alchemisland]

Is it good that my Jack Marshman bet is printed as 'NO' on my betslip? #omens #tealeaves #divination #portents #oracleatdelphi #welshmma #ufc #paddypower #badomens #mma

[celestialfanged]

read the cloud created when i put the cream in my coffee as a kind of...reading tealeaves thing. and i saw a wolf chasing its tail. that’s a good omen right lmao