Intermediate Lesson (III-V): Pick a card, any card on Faculty Room

Substitute Prof. Cleo Rocamboli

September 10, 2010 3:07 PM

Intermediate Lesson (III-V): Pick a card, any card by Substitute Prof. Cleo Rocamboli

Cleo had never expected to find herself in Sonora’s Divination classroom. But with Ichabod’s abrupt departure, someone needed to cover his class until they could find another professor. Since Cleo had minored in Divination (it had always been one of her favorite subjects), it was only natural for her to fill in. Divination and Healing admittedly seemed like an odd combination. Healing seemed to be the antithesis of Divination, since the former was really precise and the latter seemed more like speculation. But Cleo thought it was important in medicine to have some kind of faith, and looking for guidance wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially since magic made Divination more accurate than any Muggle kind of fortune-telling.

Dream-interpretation was probably her favorite topic in Divination, but the Medic knew being told to recall dreams on the spot wasn’t always the best learning experience. If she was a long-term teacher she would have the students keep dream diaries, but as she was only a substitute the forty-year-old (yikes, already?) had chosen a standalone lesson today.

The room was the way Ichabod had left it—amethyst walls and a gray wooded floor that was obscured by some kind of swirling fog. Although Cleo was good at Charms, she saw no reason to dispel the fog; it added ambience, and it was intangible so as not to bother anyone. In place of desks there were round tables, each of which seated two people. Cleo had set two decks of Tarot cards on every desk. On her desk—well, Ichabod’s desk, but it was temporarily hers—sat a few copies of books on Tarot interpretation. Of course, the students’ textbooks had the relevant information, but the method-specific books gave a bit more insight, and Cleo had no guarantee all the students would bring their books.

The ~~Medic~~ professor waited until most of the seats had been filled before addressing the students. “Uh, hi, everyone,” she said, more than a little awkwardly. Cleo was fine with talking one-on-one to patients, but public speaking wasn’t really her thing. Just pretend like you’re instructing interns. She cleared her throat. “So, obviously I’m not Professor Linn. I’m Professor—” Gosh, that was weird to say, “Rocamboli, but Professor Rock or Cleo is fine if that’s too hard to say. I may be the medic here at Sonora, but in university I minored in Divination. I’m going to fill in for Professor Linn for a bit.” Cleo kept the deadline vague intentionally; there was no need to trouble the students.

“A brief overview, for those of you who are new to the class or need a refresher after the summer: Divination is magic that’s basically designed to foresee the future, or tell you something about a person. Muggles also practice Divination, but it’s a much more imprecise study since they obviously don’t have magic. Today we’ll be looking at something Muggles use a lot for divining—Tarot cards.”

She indicated the decks on their tables. “There are seventy-eight cards in a tarot deck. Each card has a different significance, and the meaning changes if the card is upside-down, or reversed. If you turn in your books to chapter five, you can see the meanings of the different cards.” Cleo waited for students to turn to the tarot chapter before adding, “If you don’t have a book, you can borrow one.

“There are a lot of different spreads, or ways to lay out your tarot cards. No matter how you do it, you start by shuffling the tarot cards. If you want to ask the deck a question or about a specific issue, concentrate on what you’re asking as you shuffle the deck.” Since the third-years would be new to the class, Cleo wasn’t requiring anything advanced. “Today, all I’m asking you to do is a simple three-card spread. From left to right, the cards will represent your past, present, and future. If you’re feeling especially ambitious, you can try a more complicated spread, like the Celtic Cross.”

Was there anything else? Oh, written work. Cleo didn’t know how Ichabod had taught this, but she figured he’d probably assigned something that wasn’t just practical. “I’d like you to write down what you find, and what it means or what you think it means. Feel free to consult the person you’re sitting with as well as your book. Oh, and there’s no homework tonight.” She should probably give them something she else she could grade, but the Medic wasn’t much of a believer in homework. Besides, it hardly seemed fair to give additional work for a class she didn’t really teach. “Alright, get to it!”

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