Investigative research.

[Professor Everilda Araylia]

Everilda had been fascinated with the dark arts from day one of Hogwarts. There was something mysterious and enchanting about them it was no wonder so many brilliant wizards were enticed by the powers they promised. The price you had to pay though always brought her back to earth and away from the thoughts of ever using them for personal gain. It didn't stop her dabbling and investigating them purely for research sake though. Being at hogwarts with the massive library and all the equipment she needed at her fingertips was brilliant. There were of course more resources at the ministry but they were all elitist at the ministry she'd been so limited as just the secretary there.

So, recently, researching had been her major time filler. Shamefully classes and students had been taking a backseat. At first there wasn't anything in particular she'd been looking into. Until she'd started coming across some strange notebooks. They were from around 40 years ago, a student at hogwarts had left them. There were no names on them but the handwriting was the same in each of them and they were all related to one topic. Divination and the dark arts. Ideas written down on how to create some powerful divination tool. The more she read the more disturbing the ideas became and she couldn't get over the fact that a student would consider using the dark arts, would consider killing people to reach their own goals. The more recent diaries and notebooks were discussing the idea of an orb and finally she came across a name. Scratched in the corner Orak Sho'chira. This meant nothing to her at first, she was so useless at names that if it had been signed Everilda Araylia it wouldn't have meant anything to her at first.

A few days later though it fell into place. Teaching a class she noted a name on her class list that matched to the face of a strange girl who was carrying around a peculiar orb. Hurrying back to the library she started searching for more information, more notebooks, more anything. Finally at the back of some shelves in the restricted section she came across another notebook. This time the name Orak was emblazoned on the front.

Being defence against the Dark Arts teacher she should have known better than to just open a book that came from the dark arts. However being a scatterbrain she forgot DADA 101 and opened it. Everything went misty, colors started swirling around her in clouds and her eyes rolled back as she collapsed to the floor.

[Bear Nayet]

Unfortunately, Bear hated Defense Against the Dark Arts. He wasn't sure why because it was supposed to be fun and interesting, but Bear despised it. He didn't like using his reflexes and commanded to duel and to retaliate. He was always nervous in that class and felt enormous pressure to do well, simply because he did well in other classes, acing tests without studying proved to make Bear somewhat of a legend.

In order to improve his marks in that class, he started to take out some books in DADA. Instead of the text assigned by Professor Araylia, he decided to look it up on his own. However, as soon as he located it, he spotted the same Professor huddled over books with intensity but in a split moment, she collapsed on the floor after open one book.

Bear ran over to her and tried to wake her. "Arayl-I mean, Professor, are you ok?" He shook her, trying to revive her. "Someone check that book and close it!" He said intensely as he gently patted her face to wake her up.

[Hollieanda Spark]

Hollie had been huddled over her books in the library, trying to get her head around some of the plants she had learnt about in Herbology that day. She felt she had been struggling with lessons since she came to the school but was determined to keep up. Despite her determination her mind had begun to wonder as she had been starring at the page. She heard from the other side of the library a thud and a shout. She jumped up and grabbed her wand and rushed over. She saw the door to the restircted section was wide open and she crept inside. She was suprised to see Bear and the DADA teacher was on the floor.

"Whats wrong? Whats happened? What do you need me to do?" She looked from Bear to the teacher, worry in her eyes and her wand out streached.

[Drachir Nedra-Elxa]

Drachir had previously been reading into liquid death and had began to quietly wander to the restricted section, unfortunatly Professor Araylia was there and he hid waiting for her to finish. He heard a crash, which is quite common from the restriced section, but shortly afterwards he heard other voices and ran over to investigate.

He looked down at Bear and the Prof and a horrible black book; he quickly acknowleged Bear's request."Someone check that book and close it!"
He kicked the book closed with his foot and peared down at it's cover and read it out.

"Theoretical Divination expanding foresite and alternate reality paradox's, What the hell was she reading that for and how did it do that to her? It's just divination theres no real power to it."

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas walked down the halls, with his head down. He could feel looks at him from some of the other students. Those that were sympathetic, came from those mainly in House Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. There were others in House Gryffindor that were rather indifferent. Then there were those that weren't so friendly came from Slytherin. Sadly, there wasn't much Lucas could do about it. Seth's venomous quill easily swayed his own housemates.

Lucas pressed on and made his way to the library. When he entered, he was rather surprised by what he saw. The teacher was on the floor while Drachir, Bear, and another girl were trying to help. Lucas heard Drachir speak out a phrase, that quickly got under his skin.

...It's just divination theres no real power to it."

Lucas shook his head and approached the scene. "Drachir, that's completely false. If you saw the things I saw with Divination...you'd have nightmares for life. It IS powerful," Lucas said in a huff.

"And what is wrong with the Professor?"

[Professor Everilda Araylia]

Everilda slowly opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times trying to refocus on the room.

"Oh Damn that was a good 'un, wish he'd been my student!" She said refering to the dark spell cast on the book. Sitting up rapidly she nearly knocking heads with Bear and looked at him with surprise having only just noticed him even with his arms on her shoulders from where he'd been shaking her awake.

"Oh Mr...Native. Didn't see you there. Nothing to worry about here just erm....testing the carpet." She grinned and pushed herself to her feet. She looked around and only then noticed the other students.

"Oh. Hi. Yep. Good carpet." She blushed and felt like a fool. Why hadn't she checked the book for defence spells? It could have been much worse than that, she'd seen how dangerous dark arts books could be. She then remeebered about the book. Hastily she grabbed the book from Drachirs feet, pulled out her wand and muttered an incantation over it. It wasn't for removing the spell, she'd have to look at that later, but just to put a guard around the book so no one else could open it for now.

"Nasty things books! Never trust the blighters!"

[Drachir Nedra-Elxa]

Drachir looked at the book and raised an eyebrow, he was slightly confused by the professor's attempts at hiding what had just happened.

"Sorry Lucas, it's just never made sense to me. So Professor I suppose you just fell on this book, the pages fell open and theres a student you wish you had because they were an exquisite carpet fitter?"

[Hollieanda Spark]

Hollie couldn't help but giggle at Drachir's comment. She had taken a fleeting glance at the cover of the book, it looked fairly harmless and she wondered why it could of hurt the professor.

"So...books can have spells on them then Professor Araylia?" She didn't understand how books could be dangerous, they were just paper.

[Bear Nayet]

Bear groaned as him and Araylia bumped heads and scooted out of the way as she got to her feet. He was soon to follow after and whilst rubbing his head, listened to her babble on about carpets.

"Yeah, we shouldn't trust books in the restricted section..." Bear grumbled and looked over at Lucas and gave him a, "Can you believe she expected us to believe that?" look.

"You ok, now professor? You hit the ground very hard.." He chose to ignore the fact that he was called Mr. Native.

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas looked to Drachir and sighed. He sounded like an unbeliever and that reminded him of his own housemate, Eva. From what he remembered, she didn't hold much stock in Divination either.

"If you want to learn anything about it, Drachir, just ask. I do know a thing or two about it," Lucas said with a bit of frustration. Lucas then turned to Bear and acknowledged the look he was getting from his best friend. The DADA teacher seemed to be a bit off the mark today. That didn't sit well with Lucas knowing the issues with the dark arts that continually found it's way into Hogwart's halls.

Lucas looked at the book that was now the subject of discussion. The title made him wonder. "Theoretical Divination..." he started to say out loud.

[Franz Kaiser]

Franz was returning some books, and noticed Bear standing with a group of people off in the distance. After he returned his books, he walked over and realized that he knew all of them except for a Ravenclaw girl. He was a bit surprised to find the DADA professor along with the group.

He walked up behind Lucas and heard him saying "Theoretical Divination."

"Is that a new Divination textbook we have to buy?" He asked.

[Drachir Nedra-Elxa]

Drachir didn't want to upset Lucas he knewit was his favourate subject the equivilant would be Lucas telling him that most magical creatures are dangerous and should be avoided.

"Uh thanks Lucas maybe some other time, you know when Dark art's teachers aren't ebing suspicious."

He knew it wasn't a textbook they needed this book had come from somewhere else, anything theoretical was generally quite advanced.

"Well Professor if your not going to tell us I'm sure the Ravenclaws will figure it out. Your into your divination I thought all divination was theoretical, why would this one have a spell on it?"

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas turned around to Franz and gave him a nod of acknowledgment.

"Hey Franz. To be honest, I'm not really sure. Professor Araylia found this book and it seemed to have taken her off her feet for some reason," Lucas said puzzled.

He looked over to Drachir and shrugged. "Well, there could be many reasons why someone would put a spell on a book. But one on Divination is odd. Just because one can get snippets of the future doesn't mean they're going to come exactly true. Nor does that mean what you're seeing is the bigger picture," Lucas said pondering around the area.

"Unless this book tells you how to..." Lucas said out loud for a minute but then stopped. Maybe he had hit on something. What if this were a book that could literally allow someone to see events unfold from start to finish? Such knowledge could be extremely dangerous.

"...uh...never mind. Professor? Where did you find that book?" Lucas asked trying to change the subject.

[Hollieanda Spark]

Hollie was unsure if she should get the school nurse or not but everyone seemed not to be too paniced by the incident so she decided against it.

"I thought Divination was just like palm reading and stuff...like seaside conwomen use." She hadn't read much on the subject. "I didn't know it really worked. Maybe you could explain it to me some time Lucas. If I am right though if you could see whole futures wouldn't that be dangerous because you could change them?"

[Lucas Montgomery]

Lucas closed his eyes and furrowed his brow when he heard the words "seaside conwomen". A disgruntled customer once used a similar expression towards his mother and it was the last insult that person gave. Primarily because the fortune he received involved being hit by a large speeding vehicle and it happened no less than 20 minutes after the customer left.

Lucas always suspected his mother knew when it was going to happen, but because of the customer's insults, she decided to not mention when it would happen. Regardless, moments like that made Lucas realize there was more to it than simple palm reading and crystal ball gazing.

"In theory, yes. One could change the event set before them if they knew what was coming. Some could even use it for personal and financial gain. However, many of us use it as a form of self reflection," he said taking a deep breath.

"If I foresaw a radical life changing event, I would probably do what I could to avoid it in the interest of self preservation. But I would also try to analyze what is going on in my life that's leading up to it."

[Bear Nayet]

"Hey Franz." Bear acknowledged his Gryffindor friend who came into the fold to help with the situation. Bear stood there in quiet reflection as he listened to what Lucas had to say.

"It also could lead to what Muggles called Oedipus Complex. That in a desperate attempt to alter your future, you actually lead yourself to it." Bear responded softly, remembering his own background with his own cultural link to Divinations. He however, never experienced palm readings and crystal balls.

He looked back to Professor Araylia. "So why were you looking at this book?" He asked her, hoping that she wouldn't skirt around the issue.

[Franz Kaiser]

Franz looked at Professor Araylia and then back at the book while Lucas talked about putting spells on Divination books. People always said that it's a special talent to be good at divination, well, Franz wasn't born with that talent, so he was not very interested in the subject.

"So what happened? Why are we all so interested in this book right now?" Franz asked curiously. He had only joined the group after the fiasco, and found it odd that everyone was standing around in the library with the DADA professor talking about a divination book.