moon cycles and raven feathers [r. lupin]

| 10 |

october 5th, 1976

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"so, what did you need sirius for?"
cath jumped at the sudden voice behind her, and was suddenly very glad that she had already set her things down because if she hadn't she was sure they would've went flying.
"godric lupin, you're actually trying to kill me, aren't you? like you must fully want me dead."
both of the teens laughed at her joke while cath fussed with the hem of her skirt, laying it back how it was before remus had startled her.

"it's about lila that's all. she's absolutely insufferable right now and i want- no, i need sirius to do something about it."
"like what?" remus asked, leaning on the desk in front of her.
"i don't know, if i knew what to tell lila i wouldn't need to talk to him in the first place." cath said while making herself more comfortable in the stiff seats found in the divination class room.
"good point. i'll talk to him for you." was all remus replied before going to his seat across the room.

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catherine absolutely hated divination. back home, it had been delia's favorite class, all she heard about was cards and pendulums and her 'psychic aura'. she never understood how she could put up with a subject that felt so fake.

she much preferred her elected classes back at ilvermorny, a toss up between native american magic and the history of voodoo practice depending on how quick the classes filled up, those classes felt useful at least. but now instead of learning how to hex people from the comfort of her own home or about her nations rich history she was stuck with crystal balls and tea leaves.

she hadn't realized it before but she really hated tea leaves. delia used to poke around in the bottoms of her cups before she left to give her some odd prediction of the future which was annoying at worst and mildly amusing at best but now she was the one that had to do the poking.

"cath"
anita hissed through her teeth while rotating her cup. struggling would be an understatement when it came to describing how the girls readings were going.

anita was just about the only thing cath had found she liked about divination, that and the ambient lighting that lended itself well to mid-lesson naps. the two girls shared hatred for the class and cath's ability to do just slightly better than anita and thusly help her was what brought the two girls together in the first place.

"what anita?"
cath had taken a different approach to anita's cup turning, instead of moving anything she just opted to stare daggers into her leaves waiting for something to jump out at her.
"do you see anything in yours? because i can't, this is a bunch of-" she dropped her voice down to a whisper "-bullshit!"
cath giggled and gasped at her friend, pretended to be scandalized by her language.
"anita!! such foul language you're using today!" she then dropped her shocked expression in exchange for something more neutral, "but, to answer your question, the only thing i see in your cup is a load of horse shit."

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"ah! girls! what do you see!" professor trelawney* croaked from behind them, quickly shuffling her way over to where the pair were sitting. cath squinted at her cup again trying to figure out what she could possibly say to make it seem as if she had been hard at work with her tea cup.
"uh, a bird? maybe?"
she handed her cup to trelawney for approval, who leaned into the tea cup, looming over it with her large glasses and magnified eyes.
"not just a bird, but a raven my dear. a raven and-" she took cath's cup from her hand before rotating it, "-and a wolf dear. now what does that mean?"
cath opened her mouth to answer her professors question but trelawney had already walked away before she could do so. cath heard anita mumble "lucky" under her breath before going back to spinning and staring at her own cup.

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'a raven and a wolf'

she was playing her reading over and over again in her head on her way to transfiguration, trying to dissect its meaning or more accurately the meaning of the wolf. she wouldn't have paid her leaves any mind if she didn't already know what the raven was.

she didn't have a doubt in her mind that the raven was her.

ravens and her family had links running all the way back to mary webster. it was broadly believed that mary's familiar was a raven and the winged creature had been gracing her family's crest for countless decades. her mother stamped raven feathers into the wax seals of her letters and the birds seemed to have an affinity for hanging around webster manor.

it seemed almost absurd to assume that the raven was representing anything other than herself. but the wolf was a different story, it's meaning had thoroughly stumped her.

now divination was not only just a useless subject, but also a perplexing one. though at least now it was marginally more interesting.

* i am well aware that trelawney didn't start as a teacher until 1979, the year after the mauraders finished their last year at hogwarts, BUT i couldn't find the name of the professor she took over for so i've just used her.