Radha had only really just finished his first lecture towards the fourth years before the rush of new students came into the class, a slight exaggeration maybe, he had managed to clean the place up a little bit inbetween but he liked the aura of the controlled chaos, the classroom would only be perfect when there would be no one in there, as he cleaned up and prepared for the next day, and before the first class of the day. It was perfect, and that meant between those times it was perfectly imperfect.

He got lost in this useless train of thought and when he broke out of it an entire class of fifth years had managed to settle down infront of him, it was a bit shocking to suddenly come upon but it meant he didn't have to wait for them all to come in and settle down.

"You all show up very quickly." He said with another blink to make sure they were real. "So yes, hello, I am Radha Byrne, professor now so yaay!" He clapped lightly at himself and seeing no one react he stopped.

"I am your new, new, new divination teacher. Unlike some of them, I am not a Seer, I personally see that as a good thing, a vast majority of people are not seers, it is very rare." He looked over the students infront of them, he knew most would be here to just coast and ignore the topic infront of them. "Its a little unfair for someone who can see the future through visions to teach people who can't, it's like a metamorphagi teaching you self transfiguration. Whereas I may not be perfect with my predictions, but I know how to see the future with traditional methods, and can help you do the same."

He then gestured to a room that used to be used for classroom equipment now slightly renovated to include a small food store of biscuits and cakes, aswell as a kettle and various teas. "I know a few of your aren't here to actually learn and just sleep, I get it, its what. ten? That's too early to be awake, if you are one of those people, or just are tired, stressed, whatever, this room has tea and biscuits, I'll leave you mostly alone, just promise to make everyone a drink and offer biscuits out. If you aren't participating its the least you can do."

With a flourish of his wand the candles dimmed and flickered out. "Now, for todays topic and the first subject you will be facing this year. Ladies, Gentlemen, Wix of all spectrums. I present to you."

He flourished again to send a small orb of light to hit a mirror that would reflect the light to several others all about the classroom. "THE FUTURE!" He called out, very proud of himself as the lights of the mirrors recreated constellations and star patterns.

Frank Sellaphix, Ravenclaw, was one of those types of kids who preferred structure, so he was one of those students looking uncomfortable at the swaying, self-conscious manner of Professor Byrne. He'd taken Divination last year, of course, and the no-nonsense Professor Stuart had been more what Frank was used to. There was something about Byrne's manner that was appealing to Frank, but at the moment, Frank felt the awkward obligation to make the man feel better.

For example, he'd never heard a professor give permission for students to check out. What about O.W.L.s?

With a deep breath, Frank wrote on his notes beneath the day's date, simply, the word: future. Full stop.

Then, slowly, he raised his hand.

Divination was the class Eta had naturally been most looking forward to on her timetable. To see it on a Monday morning, the very first day of classes had excited her very much. At breakfast she had proclaimed she’d predicted it the night before in her tarot.

She near levitated through the trapdoor into the seventh floor divination classroom in the north tower.

“You all show up very quickly,“ exclaimed their new teacher, who was also her Head of House. Zeta ensured she took a perch near the front of the class so as not to miss anything, and make sure that the professor could see how keen she was. Behind her was Oliver who was a nice sort, Rylan and Wilma, who had her head permanently in the clouds as was perfectly suited to Divination.

Their newest teacher made his introductions, and the class exchanged glances. “I am your new, new, new divination teacher. Unlike some of them, I am not a Seer, I personally see that as a good thing, a vast majority of people are not seers, it is very rare.”

Eta sat a little straighter, encouraged by this admission. Her father had told her so many times that there were no seers in the Pepper family, but she was convinced that she had something - she’d predicted the terrible accident that had befallen late aunt Claire…

“It’s a little unfair for someone who can see the future through visions to teach people who can’t…” Eta’s forehead had grown a little crease of concentration. ”… I know how to see the future with traditional methods, and can help you do the same.”

Eta shot a bright smile at her housemate, Drea who was sporting her usual green polkadot hair.

“I bet Yume's miffed,” Eta whispered, referring to their Ravenclaw classmate who was a seer.

Professor Byrne was meanwhile explaining how he had converted a storeroom, and that ten in the morning was far too early. “… if you are one of those people, or just are tired, stressed, whatever, this room has tea and biscuits, I'll leave you mostly alone, just promise to make everyone a drink and offer biscuits out. If you aren't participating it’s the least you can do.“

But soon enough it was time to begin their proper lesson, and Eta was delighted at the atmosphere.

“THE FUTURE!”

Eta gave a little gasp at the way the reflections glittered. Then, she noticed Frank Sellaphix had his hand up.

“Tea please,” Eta hissed at him, making Drea giggle, “if you’re offering.” 

Noriko would never admit it, but Divination was one of her very favorite classes. It didn't matter that her Slytherin housemates all seemed to think it was stupid, or that Eirene had poo-pooed her choice of electives for years: secretly, she loved the idea of being able to predict the future, and she still sort-of hoped that maybe one day, she'd blossom as a real Seer, even though everyone knew how rare they were.

The new professor, Professor Byrne, was Head of Hufflepuff, which was a little disappointing, but Noriko still had great hopes for Divination class this year. She'd taken a seat right in the front row, as was her habit. His opening speech made her heart sing. She, too, was not a Seer but wanted to learn to divine the future! She, too, hated all of the students who took this class because it was easy and not because they were taking their studies in Divination seriously!

Noriko straightened a little in her chair, folding her hands in front of her on the desk as she listened to him speak. It seemed like the new professor was off to a good start.

He even ended with a properly dramatic flourish. Like her classmates, Noriko gave an impressed gasp.

But then there was some whispering and shifting behind her. Noriko turned around to shoot a dirty look over her shoulder at Eta Pepper and Obderedria Pienas, who were picking on Frank.

"Shh," she shushed them, annoyed. Had the other fifth years forgotten all of their manners over the summer? Frank could be a bit of a know-it-all when the fourth year and fifth year Divination students had classes together, but that wasn't a reason to be rude when it was their new professor's first day.

"What? No," Frank replied to Eta and Drea, a little flummoxed. Noriko was shushing them as usual.

"It's a question, actually. Raising my hand for a question. I'm not an elf. I don't bring tea. Professor?"

He lifted his hand higher and leaned.

“Shh.” Noriko Wakahisa was shushing them! Pfft.

“Alright big bossy prefect boots.” Eta muttered under her breath, wiggling her head side to side ever so slightly as she wrinkled her nose. Drea giggled again.

Frank was insisting he wanted to ask a question already. Gosh, why were her classmates so tiresome already, the lesson had only just begun! Had they not read ahead in the textbook like she had?

He seemed to have a pretty good reaction so far to how he started the class, he was happy with it, there was murmuring along with the raising of a hand, he heard some arguing amongst some of the students and it almost made him roll his eyes, but he resisted for the moment after all they were kids and he couldn't get too burnt out on his first day, so gently he nodded and looked over at the one raising their hand for a question.

"A question already? Go ahead." He said as he gave the boy permission before turning around to start waving his wand and allow the stars to expand to make them larger and more visible for the class, he would have time to get over the basics of this, while he may not know how to teach this topic properly, after all how would one explain something you can only do through feelings and personal theories?

He turned back to the boy who had asked the question, though he did his best to not look directly at him more his direction, sort of phasing his look in that way. What could a student already want to ask? He saw a couple of students already moving into the new tea room, maybe he thought he had to give specific orders?

"Frank Sellaphix," Frank introduced himself, relieved to be called on. "Sir, I have a question, actually, about something from the book."

He flipped open the text and rifled through several chapters in. "It says here, 'the ethical implications of revealing divined foretellings to the subject of foretellings should be carefully considered. It can be argued that not all knowlege of the future or revelations of self-knowledge will be beneficial to the subject of the foretellings.'"

Frank looked up. "I don't understand - wouldn't everyone want to know?"

Noriko sat perfectly straight and still in her seat, pretending to be unbothered by the name calling behind her. The biggest downfall to being a prefect so far -- aside from the fact that the rest of her house liked to call people bad names[1] and make fun of her[2] and hold undemocratic elections[3]  -- was that she couldn't take points from other houses. It seemed like a completely unreasonable restriction, especially considering that no prefect would want to be the one responsible for their house losing the House Cup for the umpteenth time in a row.

Somewhere, in her mind's eye, Noriko imagined turning around in her chair to send a death glare at Eta and Drea that would send them both into a trembling fit of tears. FIFTY POINTS FROM HUFFLEPUFF.

Here in reality, though, she simply let out a quiet sigh and tried to focus on what Frank was saying.

Wouldn't everyone...want to know? About the future? It took Noriko a second to process the conversation. Shecertainly wanted to know the future; that was why she was here studying divination, after all. (It did not surprise her that Frank had already read half the textbook; he was a Ravenclaw, after all.)

Curious, she looked to Professor Byrne to see how he'd respond. He had to be curious about the future too if he was good enough at divination to become their professor!

1.	Sarah Coffin
2.	Sarah Coffin
3.	Somehow also Sarah Coffin

He thought on the question for a moment, it was certainly a good question, after all their entire subject was to know what was to come, should this not be shared? He did however have his own views, and he supposed it might be best to bring it out now for the class to know, nothing was ever simple or clear in Divination after all and this was an important topic was it not?

"That is the great debate honestly, however I can try to answer in this way." He sighed as he moved over to the board, he wiped it clear of his name and other items before starting to enchant so as to write down what he spoke about.

"So firstly, just because you know what may happen, does not mean it may happen, the future is fickle, all it takes is for someone to take one less step then they should have for the future to change." He said to start off, writing down the future may not happen. Before thinking of the next part.

"Of course also, the fear of the future can be a bad thing. If you tell someone they'll die, you'll put them in fear, would you want to live in fear knowing that you'll die by a book?" He pointed out and wrote down the paranoia.

"The third part I want you to think about. Something that most I find don't consider. Is perhaps by peering into a strand of fate, to focus on one future, is what might cause it to happen, either by intervention or just scrying too close might manifest it. After all could a strand of fate happen if no one had ever foreseen it before? Or by looking too closely did we make it happen?"

He wrote down that with a question mark. "It might seem irrelevant, but maybe some things are better left, not being known, and by telling people of the future, do we take one of million strings, and force it to be the only string? Dragging them along a road that might mean doom just by knowing there is a possibility?"

“Spoilers.” Eta summarised in response to their new teacher’s explanation. Her tone was deeper than her own, adopting the tone of what she imagined to be a wise seer. She had diligently taken notes and nodded throughout the discussion. Divination was her favourite subject, and would continue to be however long this particular teacher lasted (as per the magical merry-go-round the staff curse of Hogwarts).

Life wasn’t as predictable as some of the plots in the Slither Girls books she, Drea and Lucinda all read (along with most Hogwarts students who weren’t Ravenclaws) read. If one knew the future it might be tedious or you might spend your life trying to avoid inevitability. Also, there were indeed limits to what someone could see. Only true seers had the gift of being able to foretell with any degree of accuracy. The rest of them were limited to making general predictions about life circumstances, which was frustrating, but still fascinating in Eta’s view.

“If we were to discover you’d fall face first into your soup tomorrow lunchtime, would you be happy?”

Frank stared, dizzied by the professor's explanation. That future-telling could somehow fold in on itself, it's reflection a reflection of a reflection, that to see was to affect - Merlin's beard, what were they doing in here? Eta pulled him from his thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh, it'd depend on the soup," he said with a little smile.

"Just, sir," he turned back to the teacher. "Sorry, why divine the future if we telling about it is so problematic, actually?"

Another good question he supposed was worth answering, he was expecting questions from kids but maybe not something this deep or philosophical about the topic, but it was worth getting out in the open, he just wondered how many times he might have to teach this same point to people, who knew, maybe like the future itself his answers would change over time as he had to answer?

Slowly he nodded as he leaned back against something for support, both out of his lack of experience being that professional and for supporting himself in general, once comfortable he offered an answer.

"There is no one reason as to why you might go into Divination or why you should, like everything, its why are you doing this? I suppose like many you joined this subject as you were interested in it, just like I did, and I became fascinated and delved into it. For awhile I tried to protect others with my skills, during the last war I attempted to use them to find muggleborns before they were attacked." He said gently as he scratched at his face gently.

"I like to use it to help other people. once, I was getting three predictions in everything I did, which I found fascinating, one prediction was always the bearded man with a limp. Another was the lady on fire. The last was a man burning his beard in May." A soft smile grew on his lips.

"Then in May, I was at a bar, sat next to a man with a beard and a limp, a woman with a dress that looked as if it was a fire started to walk past, I felt like it was a happy prediction." His smile grew as he put a finger to his lips. "Now just don't tell anyone, but I purposefully tripped her so she would fall into his arms." He then lowered the finger. "Two months later, they were engaged. And now, their firstborn son is named after me. Perhaps a bit too much but."

He enjoyed the story, it was a time that divination proved useful for something that wasn't doom and gloom.

"You may have your own reasons, but being kind with the skills you learn here may not always be rewarded, but it helps make the world a bit better even if it may seem small." He stood up again as he let the class gather themselves again or to raise more questions.

Trust a Ravenclaw to ask so many questions!

“I suppose Frank just wants to know how to predict the big stuff, the important stuff, you know?” Eta suggested, “Rather than the matchmaking.” She totally didn’t have a notebook dedicated to matchmaking and calculating who would be good with whom. That would be incredibly shallow of her, wouldn’t it? Or perhaps deep, Eta hadn’t ever felt self-critical enough to analyse.

Radha perked up at the added question, and started to point at the student who had asked it, but stopped half way as he attempted to think of the best way to answer this, as her question again was very open to interpretation, but it was fitting for divination to be a wide question with many ways to go about it, just like their own predictions and he lowered his finger.

"That would depend on what you mean as the big predictions. For some, love is all there is. For me, I want to leave this world a better place, so for me the big predictions are things that will improve others lives." He shrugged, then with a smirk. "I once won the lottery, I predicted the numbers, I read the stars and saw three crows, eight mice, nineteen tadpoles and a dog. I told someone that, they won the lottery with those numbers the next day, he's living happily now." This was far fetched, he was very much hopped on gillyweed at the time and it wasn't much money, but it was enough it helped the person to fix their broom.

Then he pointed at Eta. "If you mean world changing prophecies, such as those used to predict outcomes of wars, or who will defeat a dark lord." He felt it was safe to talk about the prediction that ended He Who Should Not be Named. It happened awhile ago and it was hard to hide the main reason for a battle. "Those clarity visions, are not for the average person. And chasing the big who will do what, will lead you to madness." His voice turned serious and he lowered his finger.

"I've seen men driven insane, trying to find meaning, sometimes they do not lead to anything, or perhaps they do but you need what others see, or it won't make sense until you're older. Don't chase threads, let them come to you, and you'll find how to apply it to what you desire, and rarely you'll go wrong." Was it faking it until you make it? Perhaps, but it stopped you from diving too deep and drowning in the depths of predictions.