Catch The Snitch

November’s Divination class was held on a cold, gray afternoon. Cassandra, as usual, had opened the drapes in her classroom but it did little to let more light into the attic-like space. However, the fireplace at the front of the classroom was lit with a pleasantly roaring fire and Cassandra had charmed several more glowing orbs to hover around the ceiling. The result was a rather cozy feel.

“Welcome to our third lesson,” she greeted her class after the majority had filed in through the trapdoor and had settled down into their chosen spots. She was getting to know them much better now and was pleased by their accomplishments thus far. “Today we will be diving into the actual practice of Divination and covering Tasseography. As I mentioned in our last class, Tasseography is simply the art of reading tea leaves.” Cassandra had stacked several tea cups on one of the small tables near the fireplace, and she gestured to them now. “You will each be taking a cup and performing a reading for yourself. I have provided special cups this year, and you will see that each cup is divided like a checkerboard inside with a different symbol in each square. Most of the cups have different symbols, so keep that in mind when selecting one.” She held up a few of the cups to demonstrate.




“Traditional Tasseography involves memorizing areas of the cup, which indicate things like past and present, as well as deciphering what symbol each blob of tea looks like. With these cups, all you have to do is find which symbols have the most tea particulates concentrated on them and then you can begin your reading. Since most of you are just starting out with Divination, my main concern is that you get comfortable with interpreting symbols and using them to tell a story. If you’d like, though, I have traditional, unmarked cups if you’d rather decipher your symbols from the tea leaves themselves.”

She invited the students to come select a cup, adding that they should be sure to get a saucer as well. The same stack of symbology books were also present on another small table, in case anyone needed a reference. In the meantime, Cassandra busied herself with magicking a full kettle of water onto the hook above the fire and heated it with a blast of her wand. Once the students were seated with their cup selections, she waved an equal portion of tea leaves into their cups and topped it with hot water from a kettle she directed with another wave of her wand. She prepared one for herself as well.

“Now, while we wait for the tea to steep, I will explain how to prepare for your reading. The person that the reading is being done for, the Sitter, is the one who will drink the tea. For this exercise, you will be doing a reading on yourself so you will be drinking your own tea. You will get to do a reading on someone else for your homework.”

Moving on, she said, “Do your best to ruminate on a particular problem or question you are seeking clarity on as you drink. If nothing comes to mind, just focus on receiving guidance that is in your best interest right now. Once the tea is drunk and there is only a small amount of liquid left, you will swirl your cup to allow the dregs to disperse around the inside of the cup. You then turn the cup upside down on your saucer and allow the liquid to drain. Once you turn the cup back over, you can read the dregs.” She indicated for them to go ahead and start drinking their tea, adding with a casual wave of her hand, “If you don’t care for tea just open up a window and toss it out or toss it into the fire, but mind that you don’t lose your tea leaves.”

She quietly drank her tea along with the students. It wasn’t the best quality tea, but it would do the job. Once her cup was empty and she judged most of the students to be done with theirs, she went on, “Now that you are ready to do your reading, you will pick out a few symbols that stand out to you. I find that three is a nice number to work with. Pay attention to any immediate thoughts or images that come to you as you observe your symbols. Not all symbols will deal directly with the future. Some are there to give the reading context - such as who or what the reading is about.” She now looked down at her own cup for the first time. “Let’s see… For example, I have here an Ox, a Book, and a Clock.” She chuckled to herself as she looked back up at her class. “It appears I may have a student who is very stubborn with their assignments and will either narrowly turn them in on time or not turn them in at all. I often associate the symbol of the ox with stubbornness. The book symbolizes learning and school, and the clock indicates a deadline. Now, I was able to piece that together quickly because of all the practice I’ve had. If it helps, you can arrange your symbols into a past/present/future order where one symbol would represent your past, the other your present, and the final one would be the future piece that helps you to predict the course of your future. I will now leave you to your work and will come around to help as needed.”

Once the class was nearly over, Cassandra made her way back to the front of the room and called for everyone’s attention. “Great work today everyone. As I mentioned earlier, for your homework I want you to do a reading on someone else. If you’re having trouble finding a volunteer, feel free to stop by my office and do a reading on me. Also, go ahead and take the cup you used today as well as a fresh batch of tea leaves so you can do your reading. Your homework, due next lesson, is to turn in a short description of your reading for the other person. You must include the symbols, your interpretation of them, and how you applied that to the person’s reading.”

She held up her hand to stop anyone from getting up. “Before you leave, I also want to remind you that your term 1 project is due at our next lesson. This is the dream dictionary you have been working on, and you will each be presenting your dictionary in your class, so please come prepared. That is all; you are dismissed.”

The sky was grey and depressing as Kyle ascended the Divination tower to the classroom at the very top. It had been a pretty rough week for him: his classes were much more challenging and intense than he had anticipated, and he found himself struggling to keep up. And two days ago during Quidditch practice he got lamped squarely in the back of his head by a bludger. Thankfully the only thing that was badly bruised was his ego, for it could have ended up a lot worse had he not managed to hang on to his broom somehow.

Given how bad his luck usually was, the weeks ahead would probably not get any better. When he arrived at the classroom, he could see a stack of teacups at the front of the room. That sparked his memory: Professor Lockwood would be teaching the class about Tasseography today. Maybe he’d be able to see how much worse things could possibly get for him.

Soon the class began, and when Professor Lockwood asked the students to collect their teacups, Kyle picked one of the special cups at random. Following the professor’s instructions, he focused on a single question in his mind: “How would his seventh and final year at Hogwarts be like?” With that, he drank his tea until only a tiny bit was left, swirled his cup, and upturned it on the saucer. And now for the moment of truth, he thought, as he flipped the cup around.

There were a few larger patches of tea leaves stuck to various parts of the cup, so he picked the three largest ones, and pushed the leaves aside to observe the symbols below.

Clouds, a Candle, and… an Arrow.

Expectantly he consulted the symbology book, starting with the first symbol he had uncovered. Clouds represented… troubles and uncertainty. He sighed. Not quite what he was hoping for, but it seemed accurate nonetheless. Still clinging on to a little hope that the next symbol – a Candle – would be a bit more positive, he flipped to its entry and found that it symbolised help from others. That didn’t seem too bad. And he did indeed receive help from quite a few people, particularly Professor Forrester.

All that was left was the last symbol: the Arrow. He located the page where its entry was on, took a deep breath to calm himself down, and read the description: ‘Depending on which direction the arrow is pointing, it could represent good luck (if pointing upwards), or bad luck (if pointing downwards).’

Hastily he checked his cup.

The damned arrow was pointing downwards.

So much for the help that he had received. With an exasperated groan, Kyle banged his head in dismay against his desk with an audible thump. Chuffling hell… His life was really starting to feel more and more like a sitcom with him as the butt of every joke.

Julian had been busy the first few months of the term, and before he knew it, it was already November and he hadn't been to a Divination class yet. He quickly wrote to Professor Lockwood, and she graciously invited him to join their lesson in Tasseography on this cold, grey afternoon. Julian ascended the spiral staircase in the North Tower and was nearly out of breath by the time he reached the top.

Julian had never taken Divination as a student, and as he climbed the ladder up to the trap door, he recalled the complaints his classmates had made thirty years ago that it was always dark, hot, stuffy, and heavily perfumed, and he was pleased when he pulled himself up through the trap door to find that it was not the case. In fact, the classroom looked positively cozy, though he wasn't surprised; Professor Lockwood's office had been as well when he had visited her on her first day. "Good afternoon," he said with a smile as he found a table with a chair and took a seat. "Thank you for inviting me today."

He was the first to arrive, he found that it was less distracting for the students if he gave them plenty of time to adjust to his presence rather than surprising them at the last moment. Of course, it was still strange to have the Headteacher in the room, and there were always a few curious glances in his direction any time he audited a class. While he waited for the class to begin, Julian looked around at the teacups, teapots and crystal orbs, and greeted students as they climbed up through the trapdoor. He didn't pull out any writing materials; he was not here to take notes on Professor Lockwood, but rather to simply enjoy her lesson.

After the class began, Julian stood in line with the rest of the students to choose a teacup and selected one of the special ones with the symbols already on it. He also grabbed a book off of the stack; Headteacher or not, he was the least experienced out of all the people in this room and needed as much help as he could get. Julian sat back down, relieved to hear Professor Lockwood explain that they would be working solo today, though he did wonder if she would expect him to do the homework. He grinned into his tea at the thought, laughing when she said they could toss it out the window if they didn't want to drink it.

Julian didn't particularly want to ruminate on the problem or question he most needed answers for, and instead tried to think of something more mundane to ask. Unable to come up with anything, he settled on asking for guidance, though he could not completely rid his mind of his true question. He finished drinking most of the tea, then swirled the cup around and turned it upside down on the saucer. When the liquid had drained, he turned the cup back over and stared into it.

The sediment was stuck all over the cup, so Julian picked three symbols at random: An angel, a bouquet, and a knife. He opened the symbology book and turned a couple of pages in the "A" section to look up his first symbol, and his eyebrows rose in disbelief as he read: "good news, especially in love-related matters." His face reddened as it occurred to him that he might be asked about his reading, and hoped that the other two were less embarrassing. Julian flipped a few pages to the "B" section and read the symbolism for the bouquet: "good friends, success, and a happy love life." His blush deepened, and he hoped once again that Professor Lockwood would not call on him to share with the class. With some trepidation, Julian flipped towards the middle of the book to look up the knife: disaster met through fighting and hatred.

He closed the book and scratched at his chin as he thought about his results. While his readings were accurate for his past, he wasn't convinced that the predictions would be true for his present and future. Was this because he drank the tea without a clear question in mind? Was it possible that his subconscious had a say in which way the dregs stuck to the cup? Or was he simply focusing on the wrong three symbols? Julian looked into his teacup again, and the next symbol he found was an apple. He opened the book back up and read from the first page: "success in school or business." His expression softened; that was accurate in both his past and present, and hopefully would be true for his future. The very last symbol, on the other hand, nearly made his grimace return.

A coffin.

Deciding that he didn't want to read what that meant, Julian closed the book and calmly pushed the teacup away from himself. A look around the classroom told him that some students seemed to feel the same way, particularly Kyle who was now banging his head on the desk. Julian offered him a sympathetic smile and gestured to his own cup and nodded knowingly. The class was dismissed, and Julian knew he ought to hang back and have a few words with Professor Lockwood and thank her properly. Embarrassed and worried that she would ask what was in his cup, however, he merely waved goodbye to her as he slipped out through the trapdoor.