HP:[" the Illithid Inquisition"]

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Reading tea leaves should be simple. Pour the tea, drink almost all of the tea, swirl the cup three times with the left hand, dump the cup on the saucer and then compare the shape of the tea leaves to the chart in the books for interpretation. But this only ever produced a mass of soggy brown stuff devoid of any definite shape. Harry had to guess at which symbol the tea was supposed to have made, and since the actual shape was just an indistinct lump there were usually several symbols it could relate to.

If Harry were a cynical man he might guess this was the whole point. The shape was supposed to be vague so that the self professed clairvoyant could pick any symbol they wanted and go: "Ah yes the closed gate. Be careful, opportunities will desert you in the near future." Or whatever else they thought the person they were talking to most wanted to hear. But this begged the question why all of the signs in the textbook weren't odd blobs as well. How was a mass of tea leaves ever supposed to make the shape of a backwards cross? A pentagram? A bird in flight? Or a split tree? It didn't make sense, half the interpretations offered by the book would never come up.

There is something going on here than just simple charlatanry. Esharry insisted as well. You can see the psychic energy flowing around that cup, same as I can. And you can see how it shifts subtlety as people handle the cup in different ways. There are methods to this we aren't being told. Perhaps even more than the professor knows.

This led to Esharry insisting they head to the library to conduct their own investigation by seeking out more advanced books. Harry would've refused but the mystery of it intrigued him. Plus Hermione's interest in the class was quickly fading. Harry didn't like that. Having a know-it-all book worm for a friend sometimes dragged on him, especially around exam times, but the one good thing about it was see the sheer enthusiasm with which Hermione approached every aspect of magic. To see her lose it, possibly just because a teacher was bad at teaching was fundamentally wrong. Snape hadn't managed to do that in two years of hard effort but Trelawney was managing it through simple incompetence.

But the library books didn't help. The stuff they would go over in the coming years just covered different kinds of divination. After some searching Harry found a book that actually went deeper into the subject of tea leaves but all this suggested was alternative ways of handling the cup to get better results. Even worse the coming years seemed more of the same. Imprecise methods that would yield muddled results that then had to be strictly interpreted according to the established chart. Harry had half a mind to drop the subject after realizing this. Then he noticed something odd.

"The interpretations of these symbols change from method to method." Harry said quietly to himself, though really he was talking to Esharry. He was by himself in the library after finishing up a quick dinner. Hermione was neck deep in her own studying and Ron had been caught up with his brothers in talk about some joke shop. "In tea leaves the sun means good fortune. In the crystal gazing it indicates coming revelation, if it rises through a zodiac it indicates a new beginning, and the sun tarot card puts a good spin on anything around it. Almost all of them are different across the different practices."

Yes you're right. Esharry noted. I think I might have an idea. Write down the names of the authors of these books. Let's see if we can find out anything about their lives.

Harry noted the information and then went digging. It took him a while but eventually he found biographies for a few of them amdists summaries of notable witches and wizards of their respective eras. Harry himself wasn't interested in them, so he allowed his eyes to flow over the relevant passages so that Esharry could read them in detail.As I thought. He announced with smug satisfaction. None of them claimed to seers themselves. These authors are just academic investigators trying to compile information for future use. I bet you they just went to a couple of magical fortune tellers and got readings done then wrote down what they said and what they meant. One person had them drink tea and then told them the cross means future suffering, the crystal ball users said it meant they would have to make a choice or face betrayal, the astrologer said this is the sign of cancer it means loyalty and trust and the tarot reader said it's the hanged man it means you will have to make a sacrifice in the future. All these books are the basic works of amateurs, the actual prophets kept their real secrets to themselves. All the little things that make a reading really work were trade secrets.

"And since Trelawney isn't a real prophet either, all she knows is this basic junk." Harry concluded. "Or maybe all there is basic junk. A bunch of con men using a little bit of magic to pull a fast one on wizards who think that knowing a little magic makes them smarter than everyone else."

There should be something to this clairvoyance stuff. Esharry insisted. The future is just the result of the present. If we knew enough we would know everything and there should be magical or psychic means of at least catching a glimpse of it. There's something real going on in that class room, we just need to conduct some tests of our own to find out what it is.

Harry wasn't certain he agreed. The future couldn't be set in stone; it had to be the result of people freely making their own choices not dancing on strings of destiny. But it was worth looking into and as Esharry said there was psychic energy flowing through the divination tower, even if it wasn't being used properly. He would test it with Esharry.

As Harry worked on this new project the month of October came and with it one of Harry's favorite past times. His quidditch practice resumed.

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