(Untitled)

[professor_wu]

Week Name/Date/Time: The Missing, Part 2 / October 2-6, 2006
Location: Divinations Classroom
Open to: Students (On the opposite note, anyone stumbling into her class is bound to be embarrassed if they are not enrolled.)
Currently Involving: Professor Wu, students

Comments

3rd Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Tuesday 10am

[professor_wu]

"Last week, we concluded our lesson on tea leaves. Does anyone have any questions about tea leaves before we move on?" Professor Wu asked as she circled the room and picked up the homework assignments collected at the end of the aisles.

"Today we will be diving into Cleromancy, which is a form of divination using casting. Like other forms, here we believe that not everything is 'random'... that even if appears to be 'random' it was fated to turn out specifically the way it did. If it wasn't fate, why did it not turn out a different way? There isn't such a thing as 'chance' or 'luck'. Everything happens for a reason, and with Cleromancy, we will be interpreting random occurrences as not 'random'."

Re: 3rd Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Tuesday 10am

[darlingdarcy]

Darcy returned Professor Wu's nod with a polite one of her own, and settled in as close to the teacher as she could. She carefully arranged all her equipment neatly around her. Glancing around at the Professor's first question, Darcy shook her own head. Tea leaves were not the most flashy part of the class, but she felt she had a fairly good grasp on it, nonetheless.

She took a few notes as the teacher talked, glancing up occasionally to listen and jotting down what she thought were the key words and ideas. A small frown creased her face and foreheard, and she raised her hand carefully, thinking she must be missing something. "Will we be working backwards at first? Or will we be choosing a random event and predicting its outcome?"

Re: 3rd Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Tuesday 10am

[professor_wu]

Professor Wu nodded at Darcy's question. "Both actually," she gave a small smile. "Today though, just to give everyone an example or a taste of what Cleromancy entails, we will be casting three die. The die represent the planets, and we will be casting them onto a diagram of the astrological houses."

"Later, we will be choosing a random event - perhaps our first Quidditch game that should take place in November?" she offered, as a way to spark some interest in the class. "But today, we will be casting die. We could cast lots or bones, but since the classroom is rather small and I do not wish to send anyone to the infirmary with injuries due to accidentally thrown stalks, we will stick with die. And if you have a mindful eye, you will begin to predict patterns with die."

Re: 3rd Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Tuesday 10am

[darlingdarcy]

Darcy smiled at Professor Wu, pleased that her question hadn't been made her sound entirely stupid. She knew that some of her classmates really did not understand Divination at all, and some of them were annoying on purpose, but she tried every lesson to try and get as much information from the teacher as she could, ever week.

She wondered which planets the die would represent, since there were only three - or perhaps they each represented several planets? - but refrained from interrupting for the moment. Instead she began clearing her desk to make room for a diagram. If it would fit on a desk, Darcy was determined that they would be using HERS.

Her eyes widened just slightly at the mention of bones. EW! "Oh, good," she said quietly, without thinking. Then she looked up a little sheepishly and explained. "Wouldn't want to make the classroom disorganized." Right.

6th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Monday 1pm

[professor_wu]

"Last week, we concluded our lesson on scrying. Does anyone have any questions about crystal gazing before we start our next subject?" Professor Wu asked from the front of the classroom.

"Today, we start Rhabdomancy, and specifically dowsing." She opened her text to the marked page. "If you would like to follow along, please turn to page 319 of your text. Otherwise, please pull out your wands and set them on your desk. Our wands are the strongest tools for Rhabdomancy, although we also may use different types of rods, staffs, arrows, and the like."

Re: 6th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Monday 1pm

[vivien_ardone]

Having finished lunch early, Vivien bounced into class a bit early. She situated herself, waiting for her classmates to enter and simply for class to start. Really, Divinations wasn't half as bad as the other students made it out to be!

Her attempts at scrying hadn't gone quiet as well as she would have hoped, so when Professor Wu asked for questions, Vivien quicked raised her hand. When she was called on, she asked sweetly, "We we be returning to scrying at all this year? Perhaps in different objects?" It was a genuine question; Vivien simply wanted to know if she would have another chance to prove herself.

Placing her wand on the desk as she had been instructed, Vivien turned to the right page of her book, reviewing the material for a moment. This look rather difficult, really, but she was excited. Things like this were always crowd pleasers when you showed students not in Divinations.

Re: 6th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Monday 1pm

[professor_wu]

Professor Wu blinked, slightly surprised by Vivien's question. It was a good question, and it showed that the girl did do her reading unlike the majority of her classmates. Professor Wu had to smile at that, although it was a simple half-smile as a nod to the affirmative. "Yes, we will. We will be using pools of water and mirrors later in the year."

"Like other forms of Divination, Rhabdomancy is used to provide guidance or answer questions posed to it. The typical and most straightforward question is where to go. For example, a fork in the road with two or more paths. Which one should the traveler follow?" she started to explain. "But if you take that example and apply it to a more universal question, such as 'where is life leading me?' then you can grasp the underlying meaning behind Rhabdomancy."

Re: 6th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Monday 1pm

[vivien_ardone]

Seeing Professor Wu smile - as small a smile as it was - made Vivien smile in return. Though she did like the professor, she was always so severe! It was nice to see that she actually liked teaching. Though, it did help to have students who actually cared. Oh how dreadful it must have been to teach a subject hated by the general population of Hogwarts.

Vivien was very happy to hear she indeed did have another chance to prove herself in the art of scrying. Pools of water and mirrors were interesting, but she desperately wanted to try scrying into fire. She had heard of it, and my, didn't it sound so very engaging and interesting.

Vivien nodded along with the professors words, reasonably acquianted with Rhabdomancy. She had read about it, understood it to an extent (as much as anyone could understand Divinations), and was excited. She bounced in her seat, having to restrain herself from flying out of her seat and offering to be an example. Sure, she didn't know what to do, but she always seemed to catch on rather fast.

6th Year - Gryffindor / Slytherin - Tuesday 8am

[professor_wu]

"Last week, we finished our lesson on scrying. Would anyone like to share their thoughts on the subject, questions perhaps? before we move on?" Professor Wu rose from her position and stepped into the center of the classroom.

"Today, we will begin our exploration of Rhabdomancy, and later move into specifically dowsing." She opened her text to the marked page. "If you would like to follow along, please turn to page 319 of your text. Otherwise, please pull out your wands and set them on your desk. Our wands are the strongest tools for Rhabdomancy, although we also may use different types of rods, staffs, arrows, and the like."

7th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Wednesday 1pm

[professor_wu]

"Last week, we left off with water being the missing component of the typical four elements." Professor Wu smiled at Deirdre, giving her recognition for her imput. "That was our sixth trigram, called Gorge, which represents Water."

She drew the trigram on the board and followed by placing it on her pictorial diagram. "It is composed of two Yin lines and one Yang line, the Yang line being in the middle of the two Yin lines. Remember Yin is dark and Yang is light, so in a way, it looks like a river with two riverbeds at its sides."

Re: 7th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Wednesday 1pm

[deirdiary]

Deirdre blushed and shifted awkwardly in her seat when Professor Wu recognised her for her correct answer last week. However, she was also smiling widely, feeling proud of doing so well in her favourite course.

She kept her eyes trained on her parchment roll, carefully studying last week's notes and adding a few details here and there before continuing to add the new trigram to her list. She grinned, simply delighted with the concepts being presented, as she drew the sixth trigram and added it into her nature sketch from last week.

Those ancient peoples really did have a lovely way of connecting everything. She reviewed the trigrams covered so far in her mind. Earth, Water, Air, Fire... Ground, Heaven... she mouthed several of the words as she thought of them, but quickly snapped back to attention when Professor Wu continued the lecture, leaving the thoughts unfinished.

Re: 7th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Wednesday 1pm

[seanbrightwell]

Sean was utterly lost, but this was not unusual. He usually found himself rather lost in class, so he was trying desperately to take diligent notes.

Easily distracted, though, his ears perked up at Professor Wu's riverbed analogy. Removing his pencil from behind his ear, he began to sketch a river winding down to the edge of his parchment, and drew two little lads on either side of it; one wearing a hat, one smoking a pipe. The fellow with the hat was yelling "HELP!" He was being pursued by a dragon, which Sean sketched on the other side of the parchment, overlapping with his notes from last week.

Sean snickered, and then glanced over at Deirdre, who he was sitting next to, to see if she, too, had drawn a river and two little fellows and a dragon. Strangely, she had not. She was actually mouthing stuff to herself. Hrrrm. Sean nudged her, gesturing with a proud smile to the masterpiece on his parchment.

Re: 7th Year - Ravenclaw / Hufflepuff - Wednesday 1pm

[professor_wu]

Since the sixth trigram didn't cause any commotion or confusion, Professor Wu continued. "The seventh trigram is composed of one Yang line and two Yin lines. This time, the Yang line is on the right of the Yin lines, or placed on the top." She drew the trigram on the chalkboard.

"This trigram is called 'Bound' and represents 'Mountain' in nature. If you look at the horizontal trigram, it appears to make sense. Imagine the two broken Yin lines as the mountains, which are usually depicted in dark tones -like brown, correct?- and the Yang line is the brighter sky above." She went ahead and added it to her picture on the opposite side of the Open/Swamp and Shake/Thunder.

"Does anyone have any questions about this trigram?" she asked.

7th Year - Gryffindor / Slytherin - Friday 10am

[professor_wu]

"Last week, we finished with our fifth trigram, called Ground, which represents Wind. Does anyone have any questions regarding this trigram before we continue?" Professor Wu asked, pointing to the trigram on the chalkboard before glancing around the class room for confused looks. She hoped to finish the trigrams this week before next week's lesson of sixty-four hexagrams. If they were lost on the eight trigrams, it would be harder for them to understand the next lesson.

Re: 7th Year - Gryffindor / Slytherin - Friday 10am

[daphnekali]

Daphne sat, uncharacteristically patient expression on her face, as Professor Wu began the class. They were nearly through all of the trigrams and Daphne wanted to move on. This year was too important to spend too much time on one subject over another. When the professor paused to wait for questions, Daphne's eyes circled the room, just waiting to land on someone who had a question. She intended to shoot them a very dangerous glare if they even appeared to be thinking of asking questions.

She then let her eyes return to the professor, satisfied that none of her classmates were planning to further waste class time. She just wanted to get on with it. While she enjoyed Diviniations, she was not particularly fond of I Ching at the moment. It was time consuming and Daphne was feeling impatient this week. Perhaps the loss of her mystery dagger had her on edge, or perhaps it was just another of her sudden moods. None could say for sure.

Re: 7th Year - Gryffindor / Slytherin - Friday 10am

[professor_wu]

Since no one said anything, Professor Wu continued. She hadn't expected that it would take almost a month to go through the I Ching trigrams, and they hadn't even brushed upon the hexagrams. She would have to change tactics next week, give them a breather perhaps, before continuing I Ching.

"The sixth trigram is composed of two Yin lines and one Yang line, the Yang being between the two Yin." She drew it on the chalkboard. "This one is called 'Gorge' and represents 'Water', much like you would imagine a river perhaps?"

Re: 7th Year - Gryffindor / Slytherin - Friday 10am

[daphnekali]

Daphne listened as Professor Wu continued, copying the woman's words down onto her parchment. She drew the trigram as Professor Wu described it, without even looking at what the professor was drawing on the board until she was satisfied with her own rendering. She scrawled in an elegant, though slightly bored, hand 'Gorge' and 'Water' below her diagram.

She nodded at the professor's words, murmuring her agreement with the rest of the class's noncommittal vocalizing. Daphne was not in the mood to add her own personal opinions today. She had little patience for any of it. Anyone who knew her well would recognize the overly patient expression on her face as one that said she was feeling quite impatient, indeed.

She glanced up at the professor, hoping to hear more, and quickly.