Chapter 2
"Hello class, welcome back! I'm happy to see a few new faces, my how word travels fast here. My ears certainly were burning in the great hall last night!" she said with a wink and an indulgent smile. A few ladies in the back of the row had exceptionally innocent faces, the type that only came with practice under duress. The airy blonde looked as serene as always, deeply contrasting the nervous boy across from her, fidgeting under the professor's discerning gaze.
"Today, I have decided to explain in more thorough detail how this class will weave all of your education up to this point into skills much greater than the sum of their parts. Since this is a rather scattered subject, we will just follow our curiosities wherever they lead us. Remember, this class will be heavily based on discussion. There is no need to be shy, there are very few truly incorrect answers. Who wants to start us off? Can anyone give an example of skills that you are taught in separate classes, that are actually quite complimentary?" Professor Nebulosa's eyes roved the room, noting the students who were suddenly engrossed in the rather odd posters on the wall, and the students with even less subtlety who were thoroughly examining the cracks and scorch marks on the ceiling. Only a few brave souls dared meet her expectant gaze, and only one girl from the house of the brave raised her hand.
The professor was a bit disappointed, but not surprised. Hopefully they were just shy, it really was a simple question. They'll have to grow out of that soon, if they plan to keep up with the course, she mused. After a hopeful moment, she called on the lone hand.
The brunette crossed her hands on her desk before replying matter of factly, "Well, a simple one would be herbology and potions. You could grow your ingredients."
"That is correct, miss...?"
"Granger, ma'am. Hermione Granger."
"Yes very good miss Granger, take a point for the bravery to be the first person to participate in class discussion." Hermione smiled smugly and traded a loaded glance at the subdued boy next to her. The professor didn't quite recognize him, but she would get to know them all with time. Some students simply prove more memorable than others.
"The rest of you will have to break out of your shell eventually, before I start calling on you at random." She made pointed eye contact with a mousy boy who blushed furiously, and the boy across the aisle from him, seemingly too smug to share his knowledge.
"Indeed potions and herbology have one of the strongest connections. Not everyone can grow their own plants and understand how to use them competently. However, if you make an effort to understand your ingredients from the moment the seed is planted to the moment it disintegrates in the cauldron."
"A particularly brilliant potioneer I befriended experimented with how the growing conditions affect the functional aspects of plants. He tinkered with lighting, irrigation, heat and humidity, especially using modern muggle agricultural technology." The professor glared sharply at a few students who scoffed at the mention of muggles. She was determined to remind them that muggles are just as clever and resourceful, maybe more so since they don't have the help of magic to bend the laws of physics for them. She vowed that by the end of the year, they will all have a healthy respect for the muggles' capabilities.
"Using a combination of magical and muggle methods, he's developed extraordinarily strong ingredients with delicately precise effects. He's using those skills now making the big bucks in California's rising cannabis industry. Magical marijuana is a delight beyond compare, and incredibly interesting to add to experimental branches of magic. If you manage to make it to my NEWT level class, we will be utilizing the Infernal Vapors of all types."
Now that got her students attentions. Miss Granger looked uncomfortably torn, she had surely heard all her life that it was strictly forbidden, and now a new figure of authority contradicted that. Professor Nebulosa vowed to shake that unwavering respect, it won't serve her once she notices authority figures are regular people with a title. The serene blonde turned to her redhead partner and hid a giggle behind a curtain of hair. Her friend absolutely radiated mirth. They quite clearly had a few clear memories dancing behind their eyes. Two older twin boys who radiated chaotic energy snickered and elbowed each other in the ribs. They were definitely new to the class, and she knew their type. Unlikely to pick up an extra class in their last year unless it was fascinating enough to hold their fancy and theoretical enough to slide by on their quick minds and not their skills for memorization.
One of them raised their hand.
"Yes, mister...?"
"Weasley. I've noticed Professor Trelawney seems to think that intoxicants open the Inner Eye," he said with a smirk, clearly trying to trip her on the absurdity.
"Oh she is certainly correct, but the real question is, can she actually do it herself?" The professor said with a sharp, dangerous smirk to counter the cheeky Weasley's expression. He faltered for a moment, and then nearly howled with laughter at her execution. She could appreciate a good jokester who could set up a punchline, and she never shied from an opportunity.
"Interestingly enough, divination is frequently performed in an altered state. Purists will insist that you can only achieve it through meditation, but thats reductionist and frankly just boring. For most people, they need a little chemical crutch, it makes it easier for them to shed their inhibitions and listen to their subtler senses, the kind that are always dismissed by cold rationality and a rigid view of time and truth. I don't entirely believe the cheap sherry wine she has graciously shared with me on a few evenings actually opened her inner eye, but it sure did open her mouth and that was even more enlightening than her fanciful predictions," she said with a sly smirk. The professor noticed the two girls in the back, who usually had their mouths to each others' ears and hidden by their hands. They looked affronted and yet terribly intrigued at Professor Nebulosa's flippancy towards their beloved professor. They were probably teachers pets, the gossips always love divination.
"Divination lends a perfect opportunity to ferret out dirty little secrets and deep insecurities. It also provides a subtle power over anyone who comes to you for divinatory advice. Arguably, the most influential historical figures were diviners, oracles and prophets. They were the most likely to sway the flow of events, without being responsible for enacting the change. However, they also tend to get too big for their britches, overstep their bounds, and meet terrible ends." The professor trailed off, watching her wording carefully. "Divination is always a fickle matter, it is deeply intuitive and terribly difficult to explain. The exact wording of prophecies is absolutely essential. To make it anywhere in divination, you need an extensive vocabulary and high emotional intelligence to correctly identify and label your predictions. However, thinking of them as prophecies tends to skew results."
"That is the greatest downfall of any potential diviner. It is not about detaching from the present and making vague guesses at what might happen some indeterminate time in the future. Divination is only truly helpful in providing a tool to analyze the present and make calculated predictions on the likelihood of events." She paused her impassioned speech on one of her bigger pet peeves to see she had left a few of them in the dust. It was just so hard to stay focused, when the distinctions between subjects were blurry at best, but mostly non existent. She continued strolling through the classroom, talking to the bird on the windowsill as much as to the students. She clasped her hands behind her back and ambled down the center aisle.
"That is to say, it does not take a prophetic trance to predict you will burn your hand if you touch a hot kettle. However, it does take keen intuitive senses to observe patterns in all forms, and use those observations to consistently compare the situation in question to somewhat arbitrary symbols and catalysts. For example, the presence of a grimm does not immediately lead to a death. However, if that grimm reappears in your life constantly, it was likely sent to warn you about an upcoming a large upheaval, something will end without necessarily ending a heartbeat. Symbol interpretation is tricky and can only approach accurate after years of unbiased observation and careful record keeping. Symbols are unique to the person receiving and analyzing them; therefore you must create a relationship to your preferred symbol system in order to accurately channel the intuitive senses that don't otherwise know how to present themselves to you." She finished her lap around the room, noting a few students now nodding sagely and a few even more hopelessly confused than when she started.
She paused, sighed, and leaned against a curio cabinet dramatically. It seemed her attempts to clarify a murky topic so generally ended up confusing them even more. She tapped her chin, her long almond shaped nails leaving short red lines that contrasted sharply on her paper white skin. She grinned suddenly and grabbed a velvet pouch of rich navy, the contents clattering as she snatched it up in a fit of fancy.
"This bag contains a set of homemade runestones. This particular array is best used for general questions of a rather mundane nature." Professor Nebulosa stepped forward and placed the bag on the nearest desk, strategically in front of one of the gossips.
"What is your name, my dear?"
"Lavender Brown, ma'am," she replied, looking up at her with guileless blue eyes.
"Miss Brown, please draw a stone while thinking of your desk mate, miss...?"
"Pansy Parkinson, professor." she replied, while shaking the darkhair falling into her face back into its sleek bob.
Lavender dropped the stone onto the desk. The professor leaned over between them, her face unreadable as she scanned the spread. She was close enough that one of her amulets, a deep green crystal marbled with streaks of white, dangling on an exceptionally long chain, swung forward and tapped Pansy on the cheek.
The professor hummed noncommittally and turned to Lavender. "Do you recognize the symbol here, Miss Brown?"
Lavender balked, but composed herself admirably for someone pulling their information out of thin air. "Well... I believe that is the astrological symbol for Mercury?"
"Indeed it is! And can you tell me what aspects Mercury rules and represents?"
"Erm, I think in astrology it indicates matters of communication?"
"That is a great start, you're on the right track. Mercury usually relates to the realm of superficial personal relationships. It is indeed the planet ruling verbal communication, but also trade, commerce, and knowledge. It also provides the basis for Hermes, the messenger god. You see, Mercury makes a full revolution around the sun in only 88 days. That means it is the fastest moving body in our sky, just like Hermes is the fastest god with winged shoes who travels on the wind. It is the closest to the sun, and therefore the most distant from ourselves of what we call the Personal Planets (that is Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter). The appearance of Mercury suggests you and Miss Parkinson have a superficial relationship, and the other runes tell me there is a symbiotic focus on gathering information and using that for your own gain. It is a form of trading, in which information is the currency and the product. Does that sound about correct?"
Lavender's eyes sharpened, the innocent look she tried to project melted off. Pansy remained imperially stoic, but a rosy blush dappled her cheeks and she was clearly more ruffled than she was willing to look. She opened her mouth, clearly thought better of the scathing comment on the tip of her tongue, and her teeth audibly clicked together with the force it took to hold that back.
Hermione Granger and the pinched, stuck up blonde looked confused and doubtful.
"That may sound like a load of hogwash, to some among you." Hermione at least had the humility to wipe the doubt off her face and look contrite. "However," Professor Nebulosa continued, "the loose associations I just made are based on roughly 15 years of consistently tracking the planets' path through my life, making connections between the phases, to its presence in someone's natal chart, and to its appearances in current runic spreads. On top of this, I have read countless astrologers and historians perspectives on the movements of the planets and stars. My experience with Mercury has taught me how to systematically categorize these observations, and notice the most common correlations throughout my personal life and throughout studying Mercury's presence in ancient star charts and the historical occurrences while it is present. Mercury, at this point, is shorthand for years of personal experience and miles of parchment written on its associations by scholars and astronomers and historians tracking its movements for millennia. That small symbol, a circle and a few lines, contains libraries full of nuanced connotations. The fact that you drew that rune yourself, Miss Brown, you reached in blindly and your magic influenced the most harmonious expression of your internal musings on Miss Parkinson, is quite telling. So are the expressions on your classmates faces, because not one of them have contradicted my claims."
The Professor paused for a breath, and suddenly noted she had travelled around the classroom and ended near the sceptical blonde. She looked down at his immaculate, slicked back hair and figured he looked a bit too comfortable and it was her duty to ruffle his feathers. For educational purposes, of course. She caught his eye and pinned him in place with her stern gaze.
"Do you have anything to add, Mister..?"
"Malfoy, Draco Malfoy" he said with practiced elegance. "And yes, I believe I do, but not entirely about divination, or whatever you would classify what you were talking about. I never had much patience for Divination, and I don't see the point of it if it just points out the obvious." He finished with a sarcastic flare, thinking himself quite clever.
"Well, Mister Malfoy, imagine you did not attend school with these lovely ladies for 5 years. Would what I pointed out be so obvious to you then?" Professor Nebulosa didn't wait for an answer, she turned on a dime and her heavy velvet robes flared out and knocked his quill off the desk. She strode purposefully to a chest of drawers in the back of the classroom. It opened with a groan and she shuffled through the contents for a few moments of stunned silence. She gathered her selection, nodded to herself in satisfaction, and strolled back to Malfoy's desk. She dropped it in front of him carelessly, hiding her satisfaction when he startled slightly at the noise. A few people craned their necks to see what she dropped, only to find a black rectangular box with no noticeable markings.
Draco sneered, thinking himself subtle.
"Something to else say, Mr. Malfoy?"
He faltered slightly, but didn't back down. "Well, when I saw this was supposed to be Interdisciplinary Studies, I was expecting something more concrete and advanced, like Alchemy."
She tilted her head and appraised him for a moment before answering. "Oh there will be plenty of that in good time, but since you're so excited to cover Alchemy, you have the honor of starting off that lesson! Why don't you tell the class the methods and uses of it?"
He glanced around, avoiding eye contact while he scrambled for his thoughts. His classmates didn't help much, seeing as they were smirking, or in a few cases outright giggling. "Erm, well, Alchemy is used to transmute and transform inorganic materials. Its distinguished from potions because potions uses plants, and transfiguration because alchemy doesn't really require a wand."
"You are, in the broadest sense, correct. I sure see why you were so eager, you have a lot of learning to do!" She smiled, equally amused and exasperated. He had the good sense to be cowed, and she had the good sense to turn and address the rest of the class before feelings got hurt.
"What would y'all say if I told you some alchemists in America created a portable black mirror? They used lithium and alkaline as a power source, so it requires no magical input to function." She noted the few students who furrowed their brows. "They used silver and gold to create a complex web of channels for the energy, and stored vast libraries of information in specialized combinations of platinum and cobalt chips no bigger than your thumbnail." Her sharp eyes caught one of the furrowed brows smooth out and a sly smile to take its place. The boy hesitantly lifted his head off his fist and raised his hand, his elbow not lifting from the table.
Professor Nebulosa caught his eye, shared a conspiratorial grin and nodded.
"Your name first, dear. What do you think?" She asked.
"I'm Dean Thomas, and I'd say that sounds like a cell phone."
She beamed at him for a moment, before sharply turning to catch the looks of confusion on the faces of those obviously raised by wizards. Hermione was hiding a laugh behind her hand and staring right at Draco, who looked even more confused than when the professor dropped the strange box in front of him.
"Mr. Malfoy, please flip over that object and press the circle you see along the short edge." Draco reached out warily and did as asked. He flinched and nearly dropped it when it started glowing. He flipped it over, but the other side of smooth metal remained unchanged.
Hermione's hand shot in the air with enough force to pull her forward a few inches, and she was so impatient she only waited for eye contact and a nod before blurting out. "Professor, however did you get that to work in Hogwarts? The first one I brought with me short circuited instantly!"
"I think its safe to assume it was made by strictly mundane means. Magical cell phones are a bit hard to find, but many of them were invented at the West Coast Academy around the 70s, originally intended as a portable black mirror for scrying. Over time, they added different features until they resemble the multifunctional smart phones we have today."
"A friend of mine gifted that one to me, specifically to use in the classroom. He'll be overjoyed to hear its novelty hasn't quite worn out. Everyone back home has one already, and since the muggles have their equivalent, the shock has died out and magicals can use theirs in public with no repercussions. Admittedly, it took a while for the mundane technology to develop to the original magical version, but now they're roughly equivalent other than the fact that the mundane cell phones don't have built in protections against magical currents. Besides, the currents here at Hogwarts are so strong they block out the signal. Even though it can turn on, I still can't reach the satellites for data and there aren't any towers close enough to text or call. I feel like I'm properly in Ye Olde Times. Adds wonders to the atmosphere of this old castle, but I gotta admit I miss my memes."
The professor snapped out of her reverie by a beep, and noticed she lost most of her students, in favor of watching Malfoy pressing the Home button on and off. Bless his heart, he still hasn't figured out how to unlock it, but at least he found the volume buttons, she thought to herself. She held her hand out in front of him and he reluctantly handed it over and watched her swipe and tap the glass screen.