Open In the Cards

[Iris van Houten]

Open after Kris posts with Ryan

Iris had finished her homework for today, so she felt like she had earned a bit of time for herself. She was practicing with her tarot deck, something she had attempted a few times before. She had a book propped open with all the meanings, and had her deck stacked in front of her. She closed her eyes, thought of a simple question, then drew a single card. Iris looked at the card and looked up the meaning, trying to figure out what sort of answer the card was giving her. She wasn't trying to predict anything in particular, and was mostly trying to get used to the different cards and their meanings instead. She took a few notes on the process, smiling to herself. It was good practice, and she felt more familiar with the cards already.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

So far, Hogwarts was so full of new things to see, Ryan had simply taken to just wandering around until he spotted something new. He already had an exciting short list of things he'd need to investigate closer, but a lot of them required prep time or at the very least more than the time he had between class and dinner free.

Nicole had showed him the student lounge on the way to drop him off the library, and while books were useful, Ryan was more eager do a bit more exploring and had wandered back over once she'd gone off to do her own thing. There were students scattered about the lounge, and it was certainly more lively than the library had been. Spotting a red haired girl fussing with some cards, Ryan curiously made his way over. "What sort of cards are those?" He asked, sitting down opposite the girl and looking at the deck. He knew about exploding snap cards, he and his dad had spent a few months last year trying to make their own deck until Mum had confiscated them after they nearly blew up the kitchen table for the fourth time. The cards didn't look like regular playing cards either, and if the girl was playing some sort of game with them, Ryan had never seen it.

 

[Iris van Houten]

Iris turned over the Knight of Wands card, taking a small note on it on her piece of parchment. She looked up whens he noticed someone had approached, and smiled at the young boy. She guessed he was a first year, as he looked younger than her. "These are tarot cards." She told him gently. "They are used in fortune telling and divination." She added. "They all have different meanings." Iris smiled. "Have you ever heard of them?"

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Tarot cards rang a bell, but Ryan had never really had much interest in Divination. It was all a bit too wishy-washy as his mum would say. "Do they actually tell you the future though?" He asked, sitting down across from her. "If you could actually see the future with cards and stuff, wouldn't everyone do it?" Ryan figured it'd be useful to always know what was about to happen, though it did sound a bit boring too. Part of the adventure in his mind was not knowing what was about to happen, though an educated guess never went amiss.

 

[Iris van Houten]

Iris smiled as the boy came to sit down, glad to share her cards with him even if he seemed a bit reluctant. "Well, they give an indication." She said gently. "And there are always multiple ways to interpret them." She said, straightening the deck. "I think most people either don't believe in it, or don't feel like the answers are specific enough." She said, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Do you want a reading?" She asked him, as he had come to sit down. "Just a simple one, I'm not very good at it yet."

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan tried to wrap his head around the girl's explanation, feeling a bit frustrated that it didn't just click like normal, simple facts did. "If it's open to interpretation, how are you supposed to know you're reading it right?" He said, tucking his feet up under him and squinting at the card deck. "It seems like you could just say you were right after the fact, that's not really predicting the future," He said, still feeling a bit put out that he didn't quite get the cards. The whole thing sounded a lot like researcher's bias, something his dad had warned him about when Ryan was younger and it bothered him. "I guess you can do one, I wanna see how it works," Ryan decided, curious if it would make more sense when a demonstration.

 

[Iris van Houten]

Iris smiled calmly. "There's no one right way to read it." She explained patiently. "There are many interpretations, some you might not see until later on looking back." She added, though she got the feeling the boy wasn't going to be satisfied with that answer. Iris shrugged at his explanation. "I suppose, but it's not really about being right." She explained patiently. "It's just about looking at future possibilities." She nodded, pleased that the boy seemed open for a reading at least. "Very well." She said, shuffling the deck eight times as she had once read that was a sacred number for these readings. Then she held out her deck to the boy. "You should pick three cards, and place them face-down onto the table." She told him. "The first will represent the past, the second the present, and the first the future. I'll turn them over one by one and explain their meaning."

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan's frown deepened with the girl explained there wasn't even a right answer. What was the whole point if you didn't even know if you were doing it right. "There's got to be a correct answer though, surely?" He said, frustrated at her calm acceptance. "If you can just see whatever you want then why bother, you could just make it up," He muttered. Ryan just didn't get it, but he was at least willing to let her finish her demonstration, plucking three cards at random from the deck and placing them as she directed. It didn't feel like any of the magic they'd been learning so far in class and Ryan was starting to suspect he understood why so many people dismissed divination as a whole.

 

[Iris van Houten]

Iris shook her head when the boy insisted there had to be a correct answer. "There are more accurate answer than others, but nothing is correct or incorrect entirely." She said, her tone still patient despite the boys obvious frustration. "It's not so much whatever you want, but whatever you interpret from the cards." She said. "There's different answers possible, that does not mean you can just say anything and use it to suit your needs." She told him. "Let's see." She took the first card and turned it around. "This card is about the past." She said, indicating the card with a gesture. "It's the ten of swords. This means that something is well and truly over, and there's no point in trying to resurrect it. It speaks of a new beginning." She said, smiling. "This might mean your past before Hogwarts, as that is now over. But it could mean many different things, and I'm not skilled enough yet to give you more details about the card." She then indicated the next card. "This is the present, the tower. It always brings the message of change. This means that there's something unexpected and out of the blue. By drawing it as the present card, it reveals that while things have been set in motion, you can mold the future and change the potential outcome of events." She hoped she was remembering this all right, and glanced down at her notes to be sure before talking about the final card. "This card is the three of wands, which indicates that you wil have the potential to learn something new, or perhaps travel. It's up to you if you will take these opportunities." Iris shrugged a little. "It could indicate the future magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Or maybe something else new you will uncover and learn." She looked at the boy with a slight smile. "A more skilled reader could give you more insight in the multiple meanings of the cards, I'm afraid I've only just started to learn." She admitted. "But I hope it gave you some insight in how this works."