Closed I Hunt the Grounds for Empathy

[Celia Vuong]

Celia was still grumbling as she left the Ancient Runes classroom. Why did they need to go out and find someone to perform a reading for? Couldn't they just do that in class? Or, better yet, why couldn't Professor Josephs just teach them something new? Who cared if it wouldn't be on the NEWT? Celia wasn't even sure if she had to do this assignment since Professor Josephs had made it clear that she didn't want to do her job this year. But there was always a small chance that the woman would check to see if they'd done it, and Celia would rather not ruin her nearly flawless transcript with something as trivial as this.

And that meant she had to find someone to do a reading for. The problem was that she didn't have a ton of friends (or any, really). There was Louis, Celia supposed, but she didn't really want to have to listen to him talk about why Ancient Runes was a fake branch of magic. She entered the Great Hall and scanned the room for someone who would potentially accept a reading from her. Her gaze eventually landed on Nolan. They'd had Divination together, so she knew he wasn't a skeptic, and she was pretty sure she hadn't done anything to piss him off recently. Celia pasted on her most polite smile and made her way over to him. "Hey Nolan, do you have a few minutes? I have an assignment for Ancient Runes to give someone a rune reading," she explained.

 

[Nolan Burke]

Nolan pretty much didn't take many classes this year. He knew he should've if he didn't really plan on what he was going to do. But he knew he had to figure something out sooner rather than later. However, with everything that happened with his parent's divorce, the thought of his future had been pushed right back on his priority list and all he could think about was his parent's divorce. Nolan sat miserably on his house table, his thoughts consuming him, a plate filled with food that was barely touched at all. Nolan looked up when he noticed a presence beside him, thankful that there was at least something to break away his thoughts. "Um... yeah, sure I guess" Nolan said with a friendly smile, as he gestured to the seat next to him. At least he had something else to think about for now.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia quietly noted the despondent air about Nolan and the untouched plate of food. Her curiosity grew as she wondered what had put him in such low spirits. He seemed hesitant about agreeing, and she didn't know if it was because of her, her request, or something else entirely. Nevertheless, Celia made no sign that she noticed and instead took a seat next to him. If he didn't want to be bothered, he'd have to tell her so directly.

"They're pretty similar to tarot readings, if you've never had one done for you before," Celia explained as she took out her bag of runes. She personally found runes to be much more rudimentary and opaque than tarot, but she kept that opinion to herself. She was just here to complete a dumb assignment for class and maybe get some interesting gossip while she was at it. "Do you have a question you want answered? You can ask whatever you want. Maybe there's something that's been on your mind that you want some help with?" she asked in a nonchalant tone, pretending to focus on her runes bag.

 

[Nolan Burke]

Nolan listened carefully as Celia explained what they were doing and whatnot. Though Nolan wasn't sure if he now wanted to do this, there was no backing out now. He frowned a little in thought, wondering what sort of question he wanted to ask. He wasn't too sure if they were able to ask a personal question or not, though he had a million questions that he wanted to ask that were running through his head. "Are you looking for any sort of particular question? Or can it really be about anything?" Nolan asked, he most likely asked a not-so-good question, but he wanted to narrow it down before going anywhere further. He knew that he wanted to ask about his parents divorce but he wasn't really sure on what he wanted to ask about it.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia was a little surprised by how seriously Nolan was taking this. In her mind, this was just a dumb assignment, but he was acting like this would decide his fate. Either that, or he was trying to think of ways to get out this. Celia really hoped it was the former since it would signal that he trusted her ability to divine the future. At his question, she shook her head. "It can be about anything, but open-ended questions are generally better. It's like tarot. I can't really answer questions like 'How many points will the Macaws score in their next game?' or 'What grade will I get on the Divination NEWT?' But any open-ended question should work." She was now immensely curious to know what he wanted to ask.