Y46 Electives Fair

[Professor Kahurangi Josephs]

The bright February sun was heating the entire courtyard up as Kahurangi entered to set up for the fair, and the heat emanating from the stone of the castle had her half considering moving the fair in to the Great Hall instead. But sunny days were meant to be enjoyed, so instead she set up a few cooling charms and a sun shield to keep the sunburns at bay before getting to work on the fair itself. A few flicks of her wand had tables appearing in a semicircle all around the courtyard, so that the second years could easily meander from one subject to the next, and to give each subject plenty of room.

With the tables set up and clearly labelled with their subject, Kahurangi moved to her own table to begin setting up as she waited for the other professors and students to arrive. Her heart sunk at the thought of sharing a table with Cyndi for the last time, but she did her best to keep her spirits up as she set up her usual display; books and pamphlets about rune casting, a few sets of runes for students to play with, her own pounamu runes if anyone wanted a reading, and a few bind runes designed by her last class of sixth years. She took a seat once she was happy with the display and fanned herself a bit with one of the pamphlets - maybe her cooling charm in this area hadn't been quite strong enough.

 

[Professor Cairo Keller]

Professor Cairo Keller cheerfully strolled into the Electives Fair, the courtyard feeling much cooler than she'd expected it to be. She loved this event. It was a chance to share her passion for muggles with fresh, curious minds, and an opportunity to recruit as many students as possible. Cairo waved hello to Kahurangi and easily found her station. She neatly set out some muggle specific textbooks on topics like muggle history and general knowledge, civil engineering, and a couple of magazines about cars and the latest technology that students could take away with them if they wanted to.

She cast a quick, almost involuntary glance around the room, searching for the Divinations table. Not that she had a particular reason for it, she told herself. Shaking her head slightly to rid the distraction, Cairo refocused her attention on her own table. This was the students' time, and she was here to make sure they saw just how great Muggle Studies was.

 

[Professor Minnie Calida]

Professor Minnie Calida remembered her own Electives fair, though that had been many a moon ago and at the time, Minnie had known exactly what she was taking. This event had been a formality to say the least, but she wanted to do it well for the future students, so she had a few arithmancy things, the book, and then a helpful guide for what the subject would help with in terms of jobs. She hoped she might be able to sway some people to her class.

 

[Miro Morales-Albertson]

The electives fair, as soon as Miro learned about it, and in turn learned about his expected and mandatory attendance as a second year, felt like a weight on his shoulders. A weight that didn't lessen as the day of the fair drew closer, and even dared to feel heavier as he arrived to the courtyard that afternoon. He had barely begun, if he could even call it barely as even the hope of trying to catch up on his current classes was one he felt like he was failing at, so the concept of trying to choose another class he already assumed would have trouble with was like climbing a mountain that didn't have a peak. A constant uphill battle that he wasn't really motivated to climb to begin with where his lack of motivation was only made worse by the many obstacles in his way. He saw the point of the fair, and hoped maybe he would be actually interested in a subject if he chose it and if it looked fun to him, but also worried this hope like most of his other hopes about Hogwarts would be wasted energy.

Miro nevertheless knew he needed to be at the fair and at least try to learn about the elective subjects for his own sake. He kept his hands in his pockets and his head slightly down as he browsed the different tables, eventually stopping at the Muggle studies table. Miro's mum was muggle born as was his step dad, so he was admittedly familiar with muggle life and technology, maybe enough so that choosing Muggle studies would be less overwhelming for him, possibly even easy. He already recognized the car magazines and technology magazines on the table that he hoped would be part of what the subject would teach him. "So do we like, learn about all things muggle?" Miro asked the professor as he reached to pick up one of the textbooks, briefly trying to look through it and see if the history would be difficult for him to learn or not.​

 

[Professor Cyndi Kingsley]

Sunhat on, the professor entered the courtyard with a small bag on her shoulder. She was eager for the Electives fair, always enjoying the chance to speak to the young students and encourage them towards Ancient Runes. Waving to her colleagues as she headed for the table she'd be sharing with Kahurangi, the professor quickly began setting up the few items she'd brought along once she arrived. Then, the professor took her seat and waited to see which students would join her at the table.

 

[Professor Lawrence Hale]

Lawrence very much felt the classic sting of imposter syndrome as he shuffled cards at the Divination table. He had a deck of playing cards and a deck of tarot cards on hand. The playing cards were a bit more his speed, but tarot was a bit easier to do clear readings with. He figured he'd offer some simple three card readings for students if they were interested, hopefully get them interested in Divination, and then Professor Le Fey could do the rest for these second years once she returned. His senior would no doubt have more helpful information to provide, but Lawrence didn't want to let the side down, even if he was only the substitute. He raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the Muggle Studies desk, giving a wry smile, then focused back on his own desk, waiting to see if any students had questions or wanted tarot readings.

 

[Professor Cairo Keller]

Oops sorry I missed this @Miro Morales-Albertson

Professor Keller smiled warmly as the young student approached the Muggle Studies table. "Hello," he greeted, adjusting his glasses and leaning forward slightly. "We do indeed cover all things muggle," she confirmed, noticing the student's interest in the textbooks and magazines and encouraging him to have a read through them. "We delve into muggle history, technology, culture, and currency. It's a broad spectrum, enjoyable, and practical knowledge to have once you finish school and go out into the big world." Cairo explained, gesturing to the reading material on the table, "You can take any of those away with you if you like. Just drop it back to my office once you're finished with it." She offered, understanding how it can all be somewhat overwhelming at the fair.

 

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne was running a bit late to the electives fair so she was pleased to see Lawrence already at the Divination table. She had a bag full of a few more props and quickly set them up. It was just a few astrology charts and palmistry diagrams, but she also set a heavy crystal ball right in the middle. If they wanted to attract students it was best to play the part she supposed. She had never been the best at scrying and preferred to work with things more tangible. With a heavy sigh she finally sat down. "Hope I didn't miss any of the good stuff." she said in a hushed voice to the other Divination professor before waiting for students to approach.

 

[Miro Morales-Albertson]

Miro flicked through the Muggle history textbook he had picked up, opening it on a random page and frowning slightly as he read the title about the Victorian era. History of magic was boring enough in itself and that was when magic was included, he couldn't imagine Muggle history would be more interesting by comparison, and assumed if anything it would be even more dull than learning about Merlin or Voldemort. "So we learn about history too then, do we learn a lot about Muggle history?" Miro asked after the professor spoke about all they learned, trying to gauge if the history she said they would be learning about would only be part of the subject or the main focus. Miro certainly hoped for the former as he had never been good at listening to history lectures or remembering important dates. He tilted the book in the professor's direction for a moment to show her the page he had open. "Do we learn about the Victorian era? What does Victorian mean?" Miro added, hoping that whatever the Victorian era was, would be interesting enough for him to think choosing Muggle studies as an elective would be a good idea.

@Professor Cairo Keller​

 

[Professor Cairo Keller]

Cairo shook her head slightly. "We don't dive into the full history like History of Magic. What we do cover, though, are the muggle inventions such as the telephone which was invented in the Victorian period and explore how muggle innovation has led to the modern day technology." She glanced at the page Miro was showing and answered his question, "Victorian refers to the time when Queen Victoria ruled Britain. The Victorian's came up with a lot of inventions. Muggle Studies covers some of them and we'll explore how muggles live today."
@Miro Morales-Albertson

 

[Aroha Blenheim]

Aroha was quite lost. Not literally, of course - she knew the castle well enough by now, though she still got caught out by a shifting staircase or two - but she had no idea what classes to take next year. Academics weren't really her favourite thing. Beyond potions and maybe history of magic, she wasn't terribly enthusiastic. But she didn't know anything about the 'new' subjects that she hadn't taken before, so she decided to go check them out. She wandered around, then paused in front of a table that had tarot cards. She blinked. Was it ridiculous to wonder if they maybe had the answer? "Hey," Aroha greeted a little abruptly, "are you, like, giving out readings? 'Cause I'm keen for one." Maybe it'd help her figure out what subjects to take, she figured.
@Professor Lawrence Hale

 

[Professor Lawrence Hale]

Lawrence greeted Yvonne, but then his attention was turned to a young girl who asked him a question a little bluntly. He didn't mind, though, better to be direct. "Yeah, let's give it a crack," he said, nodding, carefully shuffling the deck a couple of times himself and then passing it over. "Give it a bit of a shuffle, think about what you'd like to know - don't have to tell me if you don't want to - and then pass them back when you're ready and we'll see what they say." He noted she looked as though she was a little skeptical but willing to give it a go, so he would do his best to encourage her. He suspected maybe she wasn't sure what subjects to do, though that was kind of an obvious conclusion to draw. "Gryffindor, huh? What's your name?"

@Aroha Blenheim - feel free to pull a random spread from here for me to read for you! So sorry to be so slow in responding!

 

[Aroha Blenheim]

Aroha shuffled the cards, feeling them in her hands and feeling a strange kind of magic from them. Interesting, she thought. She considered her problem, and once it felt like she'd shuffled enough, she handed the cards back. The cards drawn were firstly judgement, secondly death, and thirdly the eight of pentacles. Aroha eyed the death card, a little alarmed. "Uh, my name's Aroha," Aroha said. "That death card doesn't actually mean death...right?" she asked tentatively.

@Professor Lawrence Hale

 

[Professor Lawrence Hale]

"Well, nice to meet you Aroha," Lawrence replied, careful not to mess with the cards once she'd finished drawing them. "I'm Mister- sorry, Professor Hale, but if you do decide you want to take on Divination next year you'll have Professor Le Fey, who I'm told is something of an expert." He figured he ought to manage expectations, before looking at the cards thoughtfully. "Oh, don't you worry, it doesn't mean anything like that. So, simple draw, three cards in order representing past, present and future. First up you've got Judgement, which is an interesting one. Something of a rebirth, or a call to action. Maybe coming to Hogwarts was a big change for you, in a good way." It was pretty obvious to suggest that going to Hogwarts was a huge change, but that, Lawrence had surmised, was part of what made a good reading work. "Perhaps you found some things you really enjoy, hm?"

He let that sit for a moment before going to the next card. "Now, Death sounds awful, but it's really a sign of change." He looked up at Aroha, sympathetically. "Seems as though you're going through a bit of upheaval. Second to third year is a bit like that, really. Not knowing what's coming next and all. Could also be a sign of something changing at home, or maybe friends drifting apart. It's not all bad, though. Good time for you to have a think about what you really want, spend less time on things that don't make you happy." There was also the obvious changes, but he didn't want to make things awkward. "Finally, future gives you the Eight of Pentacles," he explained. "Increase in knowledge. You'll find greater understanding, it'll just take hard work and attention to detail. But it's a good sign." He leaned back, thinking for a moment. "So, on a surface level, I'd suggest one of these subjects might end up being a positive change for you." He smirked. "Depends what you're after, though. Divination, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy all go into different ways of reading the future and finding meanings, Muggle Studies is pretty much what it says on the tin, and Care of Magical Creatures is a little more action packed but does probably have more theory to remember, too." He picked up a glass of water and took a sip, feeling he'd blathered enough. "Anyway. Things might get difficult, but you'll be right."

@Aroha Blenheim

 

[Aroha Blenheim]

Aroha nodded, paying close attention to what Professor Hale had to say. It didn't sound great. Her mind uncharitably thought back to quidditch tryouts. Were the cards telling her not go get her hopes up? Or was she going to have a big fight with someone? She didn't like either idea, really. At least the future card was optimistic and seemed to suggest that she should take one of the electives. Aroha realised she'd been caught up in thought, and hadn't responded after the Professor had gone to all the trouble of reading her cards. "Oh. Oh okay. Right. So I should give at least one of these classes a go, and it should work out good?" Aroha asked, wanting to confirm, though secretly wondering if it just wasn't that clear cut. Tarot reading seemed woefully inexact to her so far but maybe when the future came it'd tell a different story.

@Professor Lawrence Hale