Y28 Electives Fair

Professor Kalif Styx

Professor Kalif Styx

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Courtyards and the Slytherin Head of House did not mix. The sun was shining and it was an overall glorious day to be outside. Setting the booths up for the electives were simple enough. A bit of conjuring and leaving it simple. The electives fair was something that happened year after year, and instead of setting up a Slytherin booth, Kalif had a small desk and he propped himself up against it. He did this for years, but not the setting up the fair part. The students and faculty were lucky he did not use his normal tastes, otherwise there would be some sort of riot. Kalif stood off on the shade because the sun really bothered his skin and eyes. Kalif looked up briefly as he noticed the other staff were arriving. About time. He hoped that none of his students would bother coming near him today. The sun always put him in a bad mood. After all, the students could learn from the electives subjects themselves.
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The electives fair had quickly become one of Kennedy's favorite events required of her position as Divination professor. She knew not everyone took the subject seriously so she liked the challenge of convincing stubborn pre-teen students that there was more to the subject than the stereotypes. The blonde arrived at the courtyard, pleased to see that the Slytherin Head of House had already set up all the tables which made her own set up a lot easier. She smiled and nodded in greeting to the older man as she picked a table at random and pulled out her wand. She waved it and a banner with her subject hung over the table in midair and pamphlets and a sign up sheet landed neatly on the table top. She pulled out some crystal balls and positioned them on their stands on the table and laid out a few different decks of tarot cards for the students to look over. There were different designs on them but she didn't put her favorite deck on display because she didn't want a card to accidentally go missing and throw off all of her readings. She also conjured up some start charts and more pamphlets of dream cycles and astrology even though that was Professor Louise's curriculum. Once she had everything ready, Kennedy stood behind the table, ready for the event to beginning and hoping to see all her second years in attendance even if they weren't interested in her subject.
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Odette was a bit early to the Electives Fair, and she didn't really know why she had come in the first place. Except for the fact that it was apparently mandatory. She looked around uneasily. She hardly liked the subjects she had now, how would that ever improve if she had to take more? But Professor Styx was there, watching, so she pretended to look around with interest, counting the minutes until she could slip away unnoticed.
 
Jerara was so ready for the electives fair, he was so interested in all the subjects on offer at the school and he wanted to know how on earth he was going to narrow it down to a few. He wanted nothing more than to just do all of them, but he knew that would be a rather heavy workload, one that would require countless hours and he knew that just wasn't possible. The curious boy had done some reading on the subjects and while that had been pretty informative, it didn't really help much in his final decision making. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do once he left school, since as a muggle born he was still finding out what so many of those jobs actually were. The young ravenclaw stood at the entrance to the fair, and noted that few professors were in attendance, perhaps he was just early. The boy had some concerns about divination but he would wait before approaching any of the professors, he wanted to spend a little more time just trying to figure out which had been more interesting before talking to them.
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Kahurangi always found the Electives Fair one of the most fun times of year. Her subject didn't tend to attract large numbers of students, but it was exciting to describe how it worked to the second years and see some of their eyes light up. Hopefully she'd be seeing them in her class in a few years. She brought her favourite rune bag and a few carved pendants down with her and set them up neatly on her table for the students to see the kind of tools they would learn to use in her class, and waited for the second years to come by, hoping the display would catch a few curious eyes.
 
Joining her colleague with a smile, the professor pulled up a third chair. "We may have some assistance today" she said with a wink. Cyndi enjoyed this event. This was typically when she began to truly know her younger Gryffindors. They were mandated to let her know what classes they chose so she needed to meet with them all. But today was more about getting them excited and getting them thinking about their futures and what they'd do with all of this magic they were learning.
 
Bee was definitely not a second year, so she wasn't required to be here, but she and her Head of House had come to an agreement that she'd be helping out at the Electives Fair today. The professor had mentioned extra credit so she hoped she would actually get it if she did well today. Bee walked out into the courtyard and saw Professor Kingsley at one of the tables already, along with another woman. The Gryffindor waved as she walked over to the Ancient Runes table. "Hi Professor!" she greeted her Head of House and then turned over to the other woman whom she knew was the Ancient Runes professor for the upper levels. "Hi, I'm Bee," she introduced herself, "I'll be helping you guys recruit today!" She grinned brightly at the two of them and proudly claimed, "I'm going to make everyone want to take Ancient Runes!" She wanted to do her part to help out and really sell the subject to all the second years, but if they had any questions about the material, they'd have to ask the older women because Bee wouldn't know what to say to them. She was already struggling in the class but she wouldn't let the students know that.
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Faida had never done an electives fair before but it made sense to her, perhaps if they had done these back in Scotland more students would known exactly what the subjects were that were on offer. It wasn't always fair to expect them to know and understand what they would be taking on without some idea before hand. Faida wasn't even sure if she were the right person to be doing this for Muggle Studies as she was simply a substitute but she hoped that she could interest some students at least in the subject which she thought was relevant and a necessity for many wizards and witches who seriously had no idea how amazing and hard muggles worked.

She greeted her fellow professors with a smile before moving to set up her table with different muggle artefacts such as a radio, computer, synthesizer, smartphone, tablet ... lots of electronic equipment that would not work here because of the magical magnetic field interference but hopefully it would give them all some ounce of curiousity for the subject. She also had magazines on different modes of traveling like cars, motorbikes, planes and brought along similar things between the two worlds so that students knew they weren't really all that different - books, music sheets and vinyl records that could be played on the gramophone she had borrowed from the arts room.

She hoped that it was enough to entice some students, she knew not every student would want to bother but just a handful would be a lot more than she was teaching currently. Why the subject was deemed by the students as insignificant was beyond her but she felt it must be how students in muggle schools felt when they were being taught subjects like ... Irish or Welsh knowing that it would never get them a job outside of their own country but also only a job in the defense forces, television or radio would bother with it. She would have to do her best to impart her own love for the subject someone.
 
Doing well in her classes was not a priority for the second year. She liked them ok, but Corrine knew she definitely wasn't focusing on her lessons and she certainly had no clue what she wanted to do as a job. She barely knew what she wanted to do next year! Professor Kingsley's note had been serious though, so here she was. Taking a look around, Corrine didn't know where to begin. With a sigh, she decided to head to the first table and work her way around. Divination. "Hi professor" she said briefly before picking up a deck of tarot cards and looking at them. They had a pretty design on them, though she knew that probably had nothing to do with the work.
 
Kennedy had just settled into her seat when a few second years arrived already earlier than the usual crowd that staggered in afterward. She smiled as a student approached her and said, "Hi there." She let the girl look at the materials on the table for a moment and saw her pick up a deck of tarot cards. "Tarot is my favorite form of Divination," she commented after a moment of letting her admire the cards. "Each deck bonds with you, much like a wand, so picking your own deck is special and unique. After time you'll find that your readings are more accurate with your own deck than with others," Kennedy explained with a fond smile. "Are you interested in Divination?" she asked hopefully.
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Tristan headed into the electives fair skeptically. If he was honest, none of the elective subjects really appealed to him except maybe arithmancy. He quite liked numbers and honestly missed math a little from primary school. He saw his new Head of House with things for Divination and set his jaw. He approached her stand with a doubtful expression on his face. "Excuse me, professor, but has any of this ever been proven to be true?" He asked her with a frown on his face. He hadn't really noticed the other girl there until now and gave her a quick apologetic smile before idly picking up one of the cards. "Like, tarot is just random and people just put meaning to the cards they draw because they want to believe, right?"
 
Rory had found the note on her pillow about the Elective Fair, of course, but it wasn't until she was passing by the courtyard that she remembered that said fair was today. She paused briefly, wondering if she should come back with the rest of her friends later, but then decided that if she was in the area now she may as well have a quick look around. She might never make it back otherwise. There were tables all around the courtyard, and Rory immediately shied away from the one Professor Kingsley was sitting at. Her head of house might take the opportunity to try and have a serious talk with her about her 'future' while there was no one else at the table. Rory didn't want to think or know anything about her future beyond the fact that there would be awesome things happening in it somewhere. Taking that particular assumption as a given, she also decided to bypass the Divination table, although she waved at Corrine as she passed. Which left - Rory squinted at the sign - the Muggle Studies table. Stepping up to the display, she gave the mostly unfamiliar items a quick scan and then looked up at the professor running the booth. "Do we actually get to use this stuff in classes?"
 
While the girl was studying the cards, another student approached her table. She recognized him as one of her Hufflepuffs and smiled warmly at him, chuckling good-naturedly at his question. "It's certainly true," she replied simply, unfazed by the skepticism. "The Ministry's Department of Mysteries keeps a record of all prophecies made and eventually fulfilled," she answered, hoping this would be definitive proof that the magic was real. "Though Divination doesn't regularly deal with specifics, it is still accurate," she explained, well versed in defending her subject. "Those who have the gift of Seeing are more well practiced in accuracies of Divining," she added, because Seer's prophecies were often more specific than the practices of a non-Seer like herself. Kennedy smiled again as he mentioned assigning meanings and beliefs being the driving factor for these things. "Wouldn't you say the same for the non-believers? Just as easy as it would be to assign meaning, it's just as easy to pass off things as coincidence," she said, winking at him. "Regardless, Divination predicts the future whether one believes it wholly or not," she shrugged with an amused smile on her face. Tarot was most often dismissed as 'random' like the boy said because of Muggles who tried to perform it, but the trick was in the energy of the cards, energy only witches and wizards possessed through magic.
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Syrus weaved in and out of the crowded courtyard while chewing down some sweets his older brother had sent him. Everyone older then third years, he thinks got a free pass to the village. First years weren't allowed to the village, and well second year had to do crummy electives. He thought of them as crummy as to not being able to go to the village. So, his mind wasn't all that in tone with all the fuss and moving about. He lazily dragged his feet to the nearest booth, still chewing on a long caramel stick with chocolate coating. "Is this all really necessary? I'm already like learning the other stuff, and it's a lot!" he complained. "My head not going to be overworked, is it? I just need to know if I can handle it..."
 
Faida smiled at the girl that approached the table and leaning both hands upon it, she looked at the items she had laid out before looking at the girl again.
"I won't lie to you, this stuff you can't use here because of magical interference but there are field trips in order to introduce you to these things, so that you can see them operate at their optimum capacity," she wondered if the girl was genuinely interested in muggle studies or if she was hoping it was one of those easy credit classes.

"What would you like to know in particular about the muggle world?"
 
Corrine had been hoping to get away with just looking at the cards and then heading to another table, but the professor began speaking about the subject. Her blue eyes flitted up as the woman spoke, listening to what she was saying. She was just in the middle of a shrug, really she wasn't sure if she was interested in Divination, but she wasn't sure if the woman even saw her because a boy came and interrupted the one-sided conversation. Corrine now wanted to stick around just to see what the professor would say, so she simply waved at her friend who'd gone by and remained there listening as the professor responded. "How do you know if you have the gift, professor?" Corrine had predicted the weather correctly on a few occasions and she'd known that something bad was going to happen to her the night she'd been slimed by Vex, but did those count? She couldn't think of anything gift-like that had happened in her life, so she wanted to know if there was still hope for her to develop the ability or if the class would be extra hard because she didn't.
 
Now, finally some time where Alex could make some decisions in his life instead of blindly following the path given. Although Alex had no idea what he had to pick from, he just knew he had to pick a lesson to follow through in the future. Walking into the courtyard, he saw a lot of people from his generation he knew, some he liked, some not.

Walking by the Divination booth, he eavesdropped on the previous conversations. Although he believed in Divination, he was sure he had no gift. He didn't think of the subject to be very.. Stable. So he moved on to the Muggle Studies booth. He was a muggle-born so all of this was very familiar to him. Attending that class would feel like cheating to him. So, he stopped by Ancient Runes.. Now this was more interesting.

"Excuse me, could you tell me more about how this class works in life? Which career paths does it open up by attending Ancient Runes? How might it affect my future?"
 
Rory immediately perked up at the mention of Muggle Studies having field trips. She didn't care what exactly they'd be about, or the fact that she was supposed to be learning something from them - field trips meant time out of the classroom. And if muggle stuff didn't work at Hogwarts, surely that meant lots of field trips. The professor's question stumped her a bit though, and for a moment she stared at the woman trying to think if she actually had an answer. "Well... I mean, I know some stuff, cause my Gran's a muggle-born, but... I don't really know like... a lot of specific stuff?" Rory's mother would explain things to her whenever she asked, but for the most part she had essentially grown up in the wizarding world as well, and had continued to live her life that way. "I don't know what I want to know, I guess. I know muggles are different cause they use electricity for lots of stuff, instead of magic. But is that it?" Rory had never thought too deeply about the subject before, tending to usually focus on whatever happened to be in front of her at the time.
 
Andi barely paid attention during the classes she was enrolled in that year, so how on earth was she expected to go to an electives fair, and suddenly know what classes she wanted to be in for her third year? She could hardly think ahead enough to decide what she wanted to eat for dinner that day, let alone decide on what classes she was going to take. It was stressful, and all she wanted to do was run around the grounds with Aodhan instead of stress over something as irrelevant as her electives. But no matter how much she would rather spend her day outside, everyone had received a note on their pillows, emphasizing that attending was mandatory, so she couldn't avoid the fair no matter how much she wanted to.

She arrived late, and looked around with her arms crossed over her torso, completely unsure about anything and everything that was set up in the courtyard. Everyone around her seemed interested and decided on what they wanted their electives to be, and it only made Andi feel worse about not knowing. Eventually, after searching around aimlessly for a few minutes feeling worse about herself, Andi moved to sit on a nearby half-wall, hoping that Aodhan would arrive soon or that someone would see her there and note her attendance so she could leave.
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Kahurangi was a little surprised Cyndi thought they would need an assistant today. She wasn't expecting their table to attract more attention than they could handle, but it could hardly hurt, and the girl's enthusiasm might wind up helpful. "Kia ora* Bee, glad to have you with us." She said with a warm smile.

Kahurangi was pleased when the first student approached their table, giving him a friendly smile. "Career paths? You're thinking practically already." She said with a chuckle. "Knowledge of Ancient Runes can be applied in a variety of ways. For example if you were interested in archaeology or anthropology, it can help you translate and understand ancient texts and carvings, and the same is true for many fields, there's plenty to be done translating old potion recipes or deciphering ancient tales of dark wizards. If you're interested in the future instead of the past, you can take Ancient Runes alongside Divination to learn more ways to predict and prophecise. The right combination of runes worn as a pendant can give additional protection or strength, if that's something you need. It's also a practical skill to have in your day to day life, if you're having trouble making a decision a simple draw can be all you need to push you in the right direction. There are plenty of applications for runes, so the real question when you finish at Hogwarts will be how you decide to use them going forward."

*Kia ora - Hello
 
Aodhan didn't really care about electives much, hadn't even given them much thought until Andi asked him to meet up with her to decide on which electives the two of them should choose for next year. She seemed more worried about it all than he did, so felt bad when he glanced at the clock in the common room only to find out that it was way past the time they decided to meet each other in the courtyard. Quickly, Aodhan left the Gryffindor common room and headed downstairs towards the courtyard, skipping steps while doing so. ''Sorry for being late!'' the thirteen year old apologised once he spotted his best friend sitting on a half-wall. ''I was reading a magazine about joke items and kinda lost track of time.'' Aodhan hoped that she didn't mind him being so late this time. ''So, you wanna check out what electives to choose from?''
 
Tristan crossed his arms in front of him, frowning at the woman. "Right, so prophecies are real." He said slowly. "I guess I can find proof of that, but I doubt everyone can just do those. Have you ever made one, Professor?" He asked her, not really caring if it was rude. "And I don't see how something can both not deal with specifics and still be accurate, it is impossible to measure or check." He glanced at the other girl at the table, she seemed to be believing this nonsense. "No offence meant, Professor." He added after a moment, realizing he didn't want to leave a bad impression on his Head of House even if this subject frustrated him. "I just don't see how this can work. Doesn't saying the future can be predicted take away people's agency?" He sighed and gave her a weak smile. "I guess my brain just isn't made to handle this sort of thinking, but if this is real... then it's really impressive." He tried to end on a compliment, but didn't think he quite hit the mark. It was hard for him to admit that this might be a real thing, it honestly scared him a little.
 
Faida had to smile, students who had muggleborns in their families always had some inkling about the electricity aspect but seemed lost on many others.

"No that isn't it. Muggles believe in many things that are contrary to what the wizarding community believe. We explain things through magic but as magic in our sense of the word does not exist for muggles, they have to explain it ... scientifically or as others have done, through the creation of legends and myths and even religions" Faida put her hand on one of the eletronic tablets on the table, "this is just a very small aspect of what muggles are capable of. Think of what they must do for healing without magic to regrow bones or replenish blood supply. What they must do to travel when they don't use brooms to fly or the floo network or apparation?"

she hoped she wasn't boring the girl to tears but rather imparting a better sense of just how muggles had to navigate and interpret the world around them.
 
Kennedy smiled patiently as the students in front of her continued to ask questions. Even if they were skeptical about Divination she appreciated that they took the time to ask and find out more about the subject at least. She shook her head when Tristan asked if she'd ever made a prophecy. "I am not a Seer, so no, I have never made one," she answered simply. "Non-Seers can use different tools to scry and predict the future with lots of practice, but for Seers the ability comes naturally without even intending to, they don't need tools," she explained, hoping that answered the girl's question as to how to tell if someone had the gift. "At first, Seers don't have much control over their abilities, it comes and goes in varying degrees of accuracy, but with Divination, the skill can be controlled and they can See things it at will, eventually," she said.

The blonde nodded her head as she listened to Tristan's concerns about the subject but smiled at him reassuringly. "Of course not, no one's agency is compromised," she shook her head. "Divination predicts something that will happen in the future - that is the accuracy of the subject. The how or why is the specificity that it cannot always claim," she answered both of his questions with one explanation, smiling at him. "Therefore, even when a prophecy is made, anyone can live their lives as they see fit. It will eventually be fulfilled regardless, it doesn't claim how, though," she said, hoping that satisfied as an answer for him. There was an old anecdote about dying and water she could use to further explain to him how it worked, but she didn't think it necessary because she felt the boy would be smart enough to understand what she meant.
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Rose was a bit late to the electives fair and as she entered the courtyard, she tried to look like she had been here for a while. She scanned her surroundings, looking for anything interesting. She already knew she wanted to take Care of Magical Creatures next year, but maybe there was more that was interesting?

She recognized a Gryffindor girl standing with her Head of House and another lady by a stand. That could be interesting. She approached it and smiled "Hi! Is this... Runes?" She made a guess, based on the weird symbols everywhere. "What is it all about? Is it like learning an old-timey language?" She wrinkled her nose at the thought. "That sounds hard." It was then that she noticed Alex. She smiled and waved at him, wondering if he was here for the same reason she was.
 
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