The Divination’s classroom was amazing. It was made to be so comfortable. Even though the house’s had their normal separation you could see that the edges between them blurred a bit. Students who wanted to sit with someone from another house had the convenient excuse to do so. In fact, I was sitting next to Li and Isodola. It seems no one in Slytherin I really talked to yet was taking this elective. It was great to have them considering Shannon was in this class and glaring at me. None of that mattered though because our Professor was a centaur. An actual centaur was our professor.
She walked softer than I imagined around the classroom. Her teaching area had many plants and wood elements unlike ours. A proud look on her face. Professor Ailbe had a beautiful white coat. “Alright, I’m required to teach you this year dream interpretation. One of the limits your kind faces.” The majority of the class seemed bored but so far this more interesting than our DADA class. She barely glanced at us as she continued. “It is recommended by the ministry’s educational plan for you to keep a dream diary. You will record the dreams you remember and your ideas about it. Every week you will turn it in for a check. Can you all handle that?” Everyone nodded their heads.
I raised my hand. She looked up at me. “Yes? Do you find the assignment too difficult for you.” I shook my head no. “Actually Professor, I find the assignment very interesting. I often have dreams that I remember. Sometimes I wonder is a dream just a fantasy, a prophecy or just your body misremembering memories.” Professor Ailbe looked at me curiously. “Why would you think you’re misremembering memories?”
I smiled at her. Divination was actually pretty interesting. “Well, as you said Professor. Our kind has limits. We can’t perfectly remember everything we’ve ever experienced. What if dreams are just us trying to remember things the best we can.” She laughed. Li and Isodola smiling at me. Had I done something right? If anything I thought I was coming off slightly bad to the Professor. “That is a funny idea. Your kind struggling at night to remember things your container can’t hold. Much better of an idea than some of the garbage in these books.”
She threw the book she was holding at the wall. Everyone looked shocked. “This book is filled with nonsense. It assumes you all have more power and possibilities than you actual do. Only a few of you are able to accurately learn proper Divination techniques. Even rarer is a Seer that can actually connect to a path towards it. Since at least one of you is aware of this we may be able to properly have a class.”
I looked at her confused. Does this mean we don’t need to read our text books? Professor Ailbe smiled. She was quite beautiful when she smiled. “You will do as instructed by the ministry and read your textbook and take graded notes on it. It will now become your homework.” There was a collective groan from the class. The Professor ignored them. “From now on the class will be a combination of instruction of actual divination skills and reading. Your dream diaries and explanations will become a class discussion. We will not waste time on this nonsense assigned to you.”
I’d say about half the class seemed happy with the change. The rest unsure if it was good or bad. Profess Ailbe turned to me. “Tell me, what was one of the dreams you remember?” I looked at her nervous. “My brother and I are in a house. It’s dark and tiny. I thought at the time it was in the middle of nowhere… But it turned out to be just outside of a larger house. One filled with many lights and loud music. People could be heard laughing. We couldn’t get out and join them.”
She nodded her head. “And your thought about it?” I looked down nervously. “Well, my brother and I often moved homes. Many weren’t the best. I figured at the time it was just a nightmare. A dream… or an exaggeration really of events.” The Professor nodded her head. “And this is an example of your changing of memories idea.” I nodded my head. “All it was was an exaggeration of my fears of the future. It was already known I’d be going somewhere. Wouldn’t it be more realistic to assume I was just making it worse than it already was?”
Professor Ailbe laughed. “In most cases that’s true.” She turned away towards me and looked at the rest of the class. “Fear like any and all emotions clouds judgement. It makes the future murky. It covers over the truth. You must be able to separate it from yourself or you’ll never know what is a divination and what is a nightmare.” She turned back to me. “That was very honest of you for the first class. It was also very interesting. You have caught my eye. Ten points to Slytherin House.”
Isadola leaned towards me. “That was so brave of you. To tell everyone that.” I shrugged nervously. “I got caught up in the moment. Divination is surprisingly really interesting.” She nodded her head. It seems she found it really interesting as well. When she leaned away Li leaned in. “Acting skills, recovering house points, getting the professors attention. You may be doing your job too good.” I smiled at him. “I have no idea what you are implying.” He leaned away with a smile.
When I looked up I could see Shannon glaring at me.
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