Arcane [Sirius Black]

Chapter 17 - Professor Egeria

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LUCKILY, over the next week, Marlene's attitude seemed to ease up considerably. Diana thought it might have had to do with her choice to tell Marlene she saw Sirius looking at her during class.

That might not have been entirely true, but she needed Marlene to know she was on her side rather than against. It did seem to work, the girl's eyes lighting up and a faint blush spreading as she let the stiff posture she sometimes held around Diana dissipate. At noticing this, Mary lightened up too, and Diana realised just how much weight of other's issues she carried on her petite shoulders.

Mid-September brought a drafty chill to the halls, and as Diana made the long and winding trek toward the North Tower for Divination class, she found herself at once ardent for the balmy incense-clouded and myrrh-scented aura of the attic.

In the minds of students, Divination at Hogwarts walked a fine line between hatred and zeal. There seemed no grey spot as pupils made the choice to either despise the room cloaked in swathes of billowing fabrics and speckled with chintz armchairs of dusty crimson or to find refuge in the sweet brews of aromatic teas served in dainty china and comfort in the cushy sinkholes of spongy pouffes.

Diana, for one, thought the room slightly frivolous in its costumed atmosphere. Less so than honing in on an artistic vibe of intuitive tableau did the decor come across reminiscent of a dingy fortune tent on a cheap summer pier.

Their teacher, Moira Egeria, didn't rally much further for the implied art of divination. She instead conducted classes most sodden with dramatic flair. No matter how true the craft of destiny-discovery was, this class, in particular, did nothing to ensure the fact.

Diana did enjoy the tea, though, and despite not having a large array of friends in the class, had become much closer with Remus Lupin through the partnership they'd forged.

If Professor Egeria did poorly in lecturing the subject she taught, she did horrendously at making sure her students were paying attention. This made it so the two fifth-years, though still completing their work at the request of Remus (who enjoyed making full marks in his reports), could speak freely about their lives in the highest hushed corner of the room or as Diana suggested, catch up on sleep in the dimly-lit and fairly cosy room.

He was nearly late today, slumping into his seat across from her with a heavy thud and a sigh. She furrowed an eyebrow but let it slide; everybody has off days.

Professor Egeria appeared then from a spiraling stairwell in the corner, tight curls tamed with a silk scarf and dangling silver necklaces chinking together as she moved. She wasn't old, maybe somewhere in her mid-to-late thirties, and held a certain glowing beauty to her fair skin and deep green eyes. That beauty didn't travel to her personality, though, as she presented herself so often with an oddly careless breeze of uppityness.

They were to be working with crystal balls today, or as their professor called them, orbs to the future. Diana doubted that, seeing no more than a ruddy glass sphere in front of her.

"Do you see anything at all?" she pondered to Remus as she peeled her eyes from the ball.

"Hm?" he looked up, seeming unfocused and a bit confused.

"Did you see anything in the crystal?"

"Oh." He looked down at the one in front of him and squinted his eyes as he took a look. "Nope. Nothing. Just loads of white swirling mist."

"Figures," Diana sighed, setting her chin on her hand. "Mines got dark mist, though. Maybe that means something?"

"Maybe," he offered, still not entirely focused.