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Post by Professor Serafina Butail on May 23, 2011 16:00:16 GMT -5
Sera had cleared out the old wooden desks that would normally have lined the dungeon room, though it hadn't been used for potions class for however many years now they still remained there gathering a thick layer of dust. In their place stood numerous large stone slabs and that was all the hints that Serafina was going to give them about this coming lesson until the class was properly underway. They were going to learn about a couple of forms of divination in this class...but would only be trying their hands a one of them. Sitting herself atop the slab at the very front of the room she waited for her students to arrive, grinning at them toothily. "So, anyone like to hazard a guess as to what form of divination we're going to be studying today?" She asked them brightly, offering housepoints to anyone who could give her a fitting suggestion. EDIT ASSIGNMENT:- Collect a rat or pigeon from the crate at the front and a sliver knife.
- Proceed to dissect your animal, removing organs and entrails as intact as possible
- Take note of how the entrails appear, do they seem clean and in good/healthy condition? This is a good omen. If they appear diseased or damaged this is a bad omen. A lot of blood spillage is also a bad omen.
- The interpretations are fairly simple so using the above signs conclude for me what prospects this year holds for you.
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Post by Ariana Channing on May 23, 2011 21:14:35 GMT -5
The dungeon was giving Ariana goose bumps. She slipped on her jacket and looked around at the dusty desks of the old abandoned potions classroom. When Professor Sera asked the class what form of Divination they would be covering, Ariana thought long and hard. She knew it had to have something to do with the slabs all around the room. It also had to do with Halloween, of course it did, it was Professor Sera and everyone knows she has some of the best holiday lessons ever. She raised her hand.
"I think we are dealing with sortilege today. You know, cleromancy. It makes sense. It is a type of divination that uses the casting of bones, among other things to predict the future. It would make sense. The bones laid out on the slabs. Skeletons for Halloween. It fits the theme."
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Post by Professor Serafina Butail on May 24, 2011 3:56:01 GMT -5
Serafina hopped off of the slab and began to pace around her little makeshift mortuary, keeping an eye on her class. A few of them were looking a little shifty and nervous which was good, that was what she was going for. She was wondering who might come up with a suggestion first and was quietly glad to see that it was one of the Slytherin girls. It still always pleased her to see that the students in her old house had their brains engaged, it had been far too long since they had won the cup...but she wasn't biased at all of course, oh no not a bit of it "A good suggestion Ariana, cleromancy is indeed a form of divination involving the casting of bones, worth making a note of. That's not what we're going to be doing today, however have some points for Slytherin for coming up with another form of divination." Sera replied with a grin. "Anyone else have any ideas?"
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Post by Waterlily Rosefire on May 25, 2011 13:19:43 GMT -5
Lily finally found the dungeon they were supposed to go to in order to be in the classroom. She had so much trouble finding her way around the school still. Man, being a first year was a tough subject. As she looked around at Serafina's set up, she wondered what they might be studying. She wrote down the word the other girl had used, angrily scratching it out when she found out that the girl was wrong. Maybe she should have waited for Serafina to confirm it before she wrote it, but the girl seemed like she had known what she was talking about. Lily tried to think of a word for it, but knew she had absolutely no idea so there was no point in guessing.
She shook her head when Serafina asked if anyone else had any idea what they were studying. She looked down at her textbook as though she wanted to flip it open, but she didn't want to cheat.
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Post by Lila Sinclair on May 25, 2011 14:13:50 GMT -5
Dungeons? Of all places it HAD to be the dungeons? Nevertheless, Lila made her way into the stated place just fine. Sure, she was tired and annoyed, but it was not like she had much say. First she thought she had one mad professor, then she had two given the Muggle Animals professor’s fun idea for the second lesson was lions and now, three, definitely three. All of them, ALL of them were mad. “Tarot reading?” Lila remarked, not even bothering to hide her sarcasm. Sure, the place looked just right to fit into the whole ‘mood’. The shady place where they could call upon the spirits to guide the cards... Sure...
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Post by Professor Serafina Butail on May 25, 2011 15:27:57 GMT -5
"Another good suggestion Lila, but no we won't be reading the cards today." Serafina smiled, it was kind of fun to make them guess but with time moving on she thought she'd better actually get to the point and set the class something to do or else they'd all still be down in that dungeon until the early hours of the morning. "So tell me, has anyone heard of a form of divination called Anthropomancy?" She asked, pausing for a few moments with a broad grin on her face. "It's a fairly ancient form of divination, oh you may want to take this down in a few notes it might just be on your final...It was practiced quite widely by numerous ancient civilisations, the Egyptians I believe were rather fond of it..."Serafina went on, continuing to walk amongst the class around the dungeon and looking for any sort of recognition in their faces. "It is performed by a person given the title of the Haruspex, and of course is the practice of divination by...Human Sacrifice!"She paused and grinned broadly, standing back at the front of the room before the stone slab she had been originally sitting on. "Sooo, who's going to volunteer for this demonstration then?" She asked with as much sincerity in her voice as she could muster, looking around the room for a few quiet minutes and wondering if anyone would actually be stupid enough to volunteer themselves. "No? Not liking that idea?"She asked with a sigh and a shake of her head. "Well ok then, I suppose you'll all have to take on the roles of the Haruspex and perform yet another popular and fairly similar divinatory art named Hepatoscopy, or in short the dissection and study of an animals entrails primarily to predict the weather cycles and prospects for the coming year." Sera turned to the blackboard and flicked her wand at it, the chalk rose and began to write instructions upon it while Sera pulled out a large crate from behind the slab containing numerous 'sacrificed' rats and pigeons that would serve in the place of the sheep that would normally be used for such an act. She felt the class may take offence if she went out and slaughtered a sheep for them each to dissect, so vermin it was. The instructions read: ASSIGNMENT:- Collect a rat or pigeon from the crate at the front and a sliver knife.
- Proceed to dissect your animal, removing organs and entrails as intact as possible
- Take note of how the entrails appear, do they seem clean and in good/healthy condition? This is a good omen. If they appear diseased or damaged this is a bad omen. A lot of blood spillage is also a bad omen.
- The interpretations are fairly simple so using the above signs conclude for me what prospects this year holds for you.
"Ok everybody get to work, oh and anybody caught messing about this lesson will stay behind to clean up...the muggle way!"Serafina warned setting them all, probably rather reluctantly to work. [[Really a roleplay lesson more than anything so RP your dissection and determine whether it is a good omen for your character or a bad omen, but the more detailed your post (more than 1 is welcome) the more points you will earn.]]
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Post by Sirius James Elvendork Novus on May 26, 2011 14:20:43 GMT -5
Sirius had caught the message to go down to Dungeon 5 before he had even reached the Divination tower, which was thankful for him, because his costume made it a little difficult to manuever for long periods of time. It was rather uncomfortable, what with the claws and random attachments, but let's face it... he looked pretty awesome. ;D So, humming a little tune, he finally reached Dungeon numero cinco. Even with Professor Lathen teaching DADA, Divination looked to be Sirius's most difficult class. Not to mention somewhat creepy. :-\ Sirius plopped down at a stone slab next to an extremely small Ravenclaw girl. He gave her a creepy, overexposed smile (it looked somewhat like this: ) and whispered, "HELLO... WANNA BE FRIENDS?!" Only it was a rather loud whisper, so everyone heard it... but he didn't care. HE WAS PICKIN' UP HOMIEZ. ;D ... His happy confidence, however, nearly expelled from the pit of his stomach when he heard what he needed to do. "So... Professor... I have to cut open... an animal?" The Hufflepuff felt the color flee from his face. He sincerely hoped that Mark and Old Yeller weren't hearing any of this.
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Sophia Davis
Hufflepuff
Seventh Year
I'm so yours for the taking.
Posts: 1,561
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Post by Sophia Davis on May 27, 2011 11:41:19 GMT -5
Sophia arrived in time to hear the instructions for the lessons, and took notes on the different things Serafina said about this type of divination and how it has been used before. She was a little creeped out by the assignment at hand, not wanting to have to dissect anything period, but she figured she was going to have to whether she liked it or not so she might as well just do it and get it over with. She scrunched her nose slightly as she put her things away as not to dirty them with the insides of the rat or pigeon she chose and stood to go to the front. She pulled a brown rat from the cage, heading over to the stone slab where she had been sitting before. She grabbed some of her tools from the slab and began to cut it open carefully. She tried to look partially away and do the work from her peripheral vision, but it didn't seem to be working so well.
She shook her head as she looked directly into the rat, her lips pursed tightly and her eyes squinting. Her nose was still scrunched as though she was trying to avoid the smell if at all possible. Now, Sophie usually wasn't a baby about anything at all that had to do with divination, but pulling out the entrails of an animal was rather a disgusting thought to her. As small portions of the animals insides, known typically as the organs, started to appear on the table, Sophia knew that she was doing her best to get out what she good. She looked into the rat once most of the organs were out and started to pull out the entrails. Unfortunately, she deemed that she would need her hands to finish this part, using the tips of her fingers to dig into the rat and pull out the entrails. She set it quickly on the stone slab in front of her. She pushed the basically gutted rat to the side, the knife along with it, and looked down at the organs and entrails. What she saw wasn't particularly pleasing.
There appeared to be much black fading and gray spots on the entrails and organs, which greatly worried Sophia. She assumed that this was what Serafina meant by looking diseased or damaged. She could tell that this one little rat had been in poor condition when it died, for certain. Of course, Sophie would choose one of the nastiest of the creatures in the cage. Now that she was looking at the entrails she had touched, she was absolutely disgusted.
"Sera.." Sophia called for her, looking up and seeing her still in the same place as before. She looked down and shook her head, knowing this meant that her prospects for the year were grim. This was greatly disappointing, as this was her seventh year and she wanted only to enjoy it and to get out graduated and happy. "It's not looking so good. A lot of black fading and grayed out spots all over the entrails and organs." She grimaced slightly.
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Morse Macnair
Gryffindor
Fifth Year
Praying for some peace of mind
Posts: 251
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Post by Morse Macnair on May 27, 2011 12:44:40 GMT -5
Morse stared at the crates that towered with rats and pidgeons. The professor had clearly enjoyed herself a little too much this weekend. He wondered vaguely what her plans were with the remainder of the vermin, he had an inkling suspicion that the use in class was merely a facade to distract the higher ups from any funny business. hmph... He grabbed a pidgeon, and brought it over to the table. He didnt have a problem with rats, pidgeons on the other hand had proved to be a nuisance in his life. The filthy things had it coming for them.
Morse dragged the scalpel across the pidgeon, not touching it quite yet, he reached its wings and stabbed the scalpel to one side, nailing it down to the desk, he grabbed another scalpel and did the same with the other side, enjoying himself just a little bit. The thing did need to stay put during the procedure...not to mention, he always seemed to have the misfortune of things not going his way. If the damn thing woke up midway through atleast it wouldnt be able to escape. heh ;D
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Post by Abba Bjorn Faltskog Jr. on May 27, 2011 23:47:05 GMT -5
Abba Jr looked at his beloved Serafina stunned as Abba Sr when there was a woman with the most perfect boobs on her chest but a snake in her undies. Stunned wouldn't begin to explain it. "YOU WANT ME TO DISSECT ADIDAS?! Mom would KILL me!" he said. Adidas was his mother's pet owl. So instead he got a rat. Eww. "NASTY!" Abba Jr exclaimed as he got a bit squimish and qweasy at the thought of having to cut open this creature. Grabbing a knife Abba Jr was about to make an incision when his rat jumped. "AHHHH OH MY GOD ITS ALIVE!! HE HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD! BAD OMENS COME THIS WAY!" Screaming Abba Jr ran around the dungeon and flaired and flapped as he ran between all the students.
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Morse Macnair
Gryffindor
Fifth Year
Praying for some peace of mind
Posts: 251
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Post by Morse Macnair on May 28, 2011 13:55:34 GMT -5
Morse stuck his foot out as the raving loony went around screaming, perhaps a little fall would shut him up?
Then he continued with his procedure. Carefully he slid the scalpel down the birds chest. He lifted the scalpel and made two more incesions one across the top, and another at the bottom. Blood began to gush after each incesion, but it didn't affect Mo. Instead he swiped the blood away messily with his gloved hand, and then peeled the flaps of skin to either side of the bird and saw the tiny organs.
They were really small.. he wondered for a moment how theyd take them out without smushing them in the process. His hand was too pig, and he'd probably pulverize them in the process.. Where was wonderbread when you needed her tiny hands? Hmm.. he sighed and pulled up a pair of forceps and carefully attempted to tug them out, starting with the gizzard. He tugged at the thing as carefully as he could, snipping what it was connected to and then placing it onto the table. His forehead dripping with sweat. Now he understood how sugeons felt.
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Post by Professor Serafina Butail on May 28, 2011 15:06:00 GMT -5
She had expected a little disbelief and aversion from a few of her students to the task she had set them, but hell it made a change from all of the other typical divination lessons that she could have done and lets face it astrology just wasn't as hands on and fun as this one could be. So when Sirius asked her in a slightly horrified whisper what he had to do, Sera forced a smile, "Yes Sirius you need to cut up an animal. I can assure you that none of these were anybody's pets or anything and were all destined to die in the vermin traps around the school at some point in their lives anyway; this way they are proving to be useful." She replied frankly before moving on to see how everybody else was getting on.
Sophia had cracked on with the task well, as much as she didn't like the idea of it Sera knew that the Hufflepuff would not shy away from an assignment given to her. And when she called Sera over she headed to her quickly and peered down at the entrails she had extracted from her rat. She was right, it didn't look too be very promising by the way that omens went. Sera frowned, "Hmm, you're right it doesn't look too good," The rat had certainly not been a well creature in its life, "But bear in mind this doesn't mean your whole year is going to be awful or anything, it could simply be a sign that something bad could be on the horizon giving you a chance to prepare for it." She explained, trying to reassure Sophia, besides far as foretelling the future went omens weren't exactly the most accurate. "And if you're feeling confident in your other divination skills you could always try and figure out what this bad thing may be." She added knowing how much Sophia liked to study the subject.
Proceeding around the room Sera observed Morse getting to work on the task with some sense of almost enjoyment. While knowing that some of them would shy away from it she knew that some others would actually quite enjoy the idea, even if his pinning of the pigeons wings to the slab was unecessary it would hold the bird in place so Sera simply shrugged and moved on.
When Abba Jr started to have a sudden freak out Sera had to wonder whether she had gotten a little sloppy in her sacrifices of the animals, after so many of them it did start to get a little tiresome. Sera inspected the rat, nope it was definitely dead the poor boys imagination was running away with him. Well it was Halloween, Sera wouldn't feel entirely satisfied unless her lesson had managed to scare somebody.
"Abba Jr calm down, the rat is dead." Sera called out to him, holding the creature by its tail where it dangled entirely motionless. "Now come on and finish the assignment, or you'll be the one I have stay behind to clean up the entrails." Sera added with a grin as she set the rat back down on the slab next to the knife awaiting the boy to finish his work.
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Post by Lila Sinclair on May 29, 2011 4:32:23 GMT -5
Lila could feel her inside squirm. Di-what?! Her brain was going a million miles a minute. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” She blurted before she could stop herself. Ewww... Dead things, blood... *shivers. She could feel sweats dropping down her face. She was going into panic attack. But, she was not going to fail the stupid class. Hell no. So, with no choice, she braved up herself and stalked to take a dead pigeon from the crate and a silver knife. “Ughh...” Lila mumbled crying the thing back to her table with her hand stretched as far away from her body as she could with the knife in the other hand. Her stomach was doing sixteen back flips. “Let’s get this over with,” Lila said, placing the dead pigeon on her table, but standing as far away as she could “Ewww...” She complained the moment her knife traced the pigeon, gutting the dead thing... “This... Is... Disgusting...” She pulled out the intestine. “Grades, grades,” She chanted, it didn’t work as she could feel herself vomit in her mouth a little when she looked carefully at the creature before her.
“Looks fine!” She called, “I mean, it looks fine, professor,” Lila corrected herself. “No excessive blood spill and... eww... more than half intact organs,” She added. She was going to pass out. No, she can’t, she’ll NEVER hear the end of it if she does...
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Post by Waterlily Rosefire on May 29, 2011 14:24:07 GMT -5
Unfortunately for Lily, the type of divination they would be studying today required her to pick a rat or a pigeon and cut it open. Remove its organs and entrails? Now, this did not please the young girl at all. She was rather squeamish in the first place, but you add that to the fact that she actually had to do this without the use of her wand and it really did irk her. She hadn't been practicing with a wand nearly as often as some of the students in the classroom, so she was sure that doing this by hand for some of the other students was rather bothersome, but it still really irked her too.
Lily walked to the front of the room and picked one of the pigeons up by a small feather on the tip of its wing. She held it out at arm's length in front of her, dropping it on her stone slab gently when she reached it again, setting herself down in front of it. She took her knife and with her head tilted slightly away from the bird, opened it up. She began to very quickly, but carefully pull out the entrails. She held her breath, not appreciating the smell at all. When she realized she would need air soon, she put her nose inside of the top of her uniform, breathing deeply now that she felt she had clean air again. As she finished pulling the entrails out, she laid them in front of her so they would be easier to see, her small hands feeling icky.
She looked down at them and nearly gagged, so she decided to look back at the entrails. Not much help, but at least they were sitting on the stone and weren't covering her skin so it didn't feel nearly as gross. She sighed softly. Everything looked nice and peachy, just as she had hoped or expected. She didn't see any sign of disease, no black marks, nothing too terribly bad. She smiled, calling over to Serafina. When she arrived at the young girl's table, Waterlily looked up at her with a smile. "Looks good to me!" She laughed a little. All of that just for that one statement.
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Post by Sirius James Elvendork Novus on May 30, 2011 9:26:08 GMT -5
[[This might be a little late, but I'm gonna go for it, anyway. xD]] Sirius about puked everywhere. He didn't care if these poor little creatures were destined to die at some point in their lives... Everybody was. But that didn't mean that he wanted to take a knife and slice open the animal and examine the insides. That was just cruel! Besides, it was going to be awfully difficult in his lobster costume... Putting on a brave face, the Hufflepuff removed his claws and stuffed them in his bag next to Mark and Old Yeller, who were both sleeping calmly. He held his head high as he strolled to the crate of animals and picked out the smallest, most peaceful-looking rat (pigeons made him think of Mark, and he didn't want to cut up Mark ). Then, knife in his other hand, he made his way back to a desk, holding the rat by the very tippy of his tail. This... was gonna be tough. Okay. I can do this. Sirius took the knife and, without looking, made a long cut down the middle of the creature. Though, he probably should've looked, because when he did, he had accidentally cut one of the larger, thicker organs near the top. The liver, or whatever. Wow, this smell was pretty stinkin' nasty. Did that mean bad things were gonna happen to him the future? PROBABLY, BECAUSE HE WAS CUTTIN' UP A STUPID RAT AND KARMA WAS GONAN GET BACK AT HIM FOR THIS!!!!! Slowly, he cut out and observed all of the rats organs. They didn't look good at all... Most of them looked as though they had been out of shape for several years, resulting in a gray, crumpled sort of appearance. The intestines were very thin and stuck together like there was gum stuck to them. It was disgusting. Sirius was sure that this would be the first and last time he ever cut open an animal, because while he was a little boy and usually little boys found cutting things open to be SUPER AWESOME COOL!!!! ... he was the complete opposite. Never... ever... again. "Well, it looks like I'm gonna have a horrible year," said Sirius sadly, though he was green from sickness and the horrible year was kind of the least of his worries right now. He was more worried about the fact that he was going to smell like rat guts for the rest of the day and he had seen things that no first year should ever have to see...
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