Visions of Sugar Plums (Open)

Naomi took a deep breath under the ladder to the unused Divination classroom. It had been deserted for a few years, as the school hadn't employed a Divination teacher in a few years. She was sure that it would be horribly dusty, but that wasn't what made her pause.

It was the visions that she was going, for the first time in her life, to invite instead of avoid.

Her vision concerning Professor Jake had shown her that her power was getting stronger, and, as much as she hated it, Naomi knew she couldn't ignore a power that was growing. Steeling herself, she climbed the ladder, pulled down the trap door, and heaved herself into the abandoned classroom.

Predictably, it was dusty, though less so than she had thought. The House Elves must come up to clean occasionally. Nevertheless, she left the trap door open and opened some windows to allow air to flow through the stale space.

Opening one of the many books she had either bought or borrowed from the library, Naomi glanced through it. The most pertinent thing seemed to be a branch of Divination called oneiromancy, or dream interpretation, but that seemed to be for interpreting normal dreams, not actual visions. She closed the book and chose another.

Most of the magical books just left her frustrated, so she decided to try a few Muggle ones instead. Naomi had already leafed through a few of these and brought along some materials she hoped would help: hematite for grounding, lapis lazuli for accessing her higher mind as well as a desire for truth, and amethyst to help open herself up to the visions. She didn't really know what to do with them, so she just held the stones in her hand. Another book recommended burning dried elfwort to help with divination, so she lit a small fire in her cauldron and tossed some elfwort in, waiting for the smoke to somewhat fill the air.

After preparing as well as she could, Naomi decided she would try to See something; a prospect that made her tremble to think about. She had never purposely invited a vision before and she was nervous. Sitting cross-legged, with her palms face up on her knees (one with the stones still balanced on it), Naomi concentrated on slowing her breathing and trying to recapture the feel of a vision.

Blue and yellow robes whipping through the air, cold air on her cheeks...

Snow flying through the air, about to hit-

Naomi jumped, sending the stones scattering across the floor, her eyes flying open to see a young Slytherin boy, clearly the one who had spoken to her. She quickly dropped her eyes to the floor, blushing. Using her moment of scrabbling for the stones to collect herself, she thought up a decent excuse. It technically wan't even a lie.

"Meditating," she answered quietly, still staring at the floor. Naomi took a moment to be glad that all the spines of her books were facing away from the boy, although it wouldn't take much maneuvering to see their titles. She studied him from under her eyelashes. He was the French one, she thought, the arrogant one who hadn't bowed to the hippogriff in her Care of Magical Creatures class, yet somehow managed not to get savaged. "What are you doing here?" she finally asked quietly when he seemed in no hurry to leave.

"I'm not," Naomi replied instantly, giving herself away even more with the prompt denial. Although she really wasn't lying, meditating wasn't the full answer and she didn't have the confidence to carry the half-truth off. She was still staring at the floor, unable to look the boy in the eyes. He had the air of someone who was very self-assured and that made her pull into her shell even more.

When he answered her question, Naomi ducked her head even further down. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," she said quietly. She knew how it felt to need a quiet space away from others and she felt terrible for invading his. "I didn't even notice you were here. I can leave?" She finally glanced up to gauge his reaction. Although she really did feel bad for interrupting him, she also didn't know where else she could go to try to induce her visions without being interrupted.

Blushing, Naomi nodded. "I know. I always left the lying to my cousins, when it was necessary." Though Naomi could come up with excellent lies and half-truths, she had trouble delivering them convincingly unless she had the time to prepare herself. Even then, she had trouble lying to people she didn't know well.

"Thank you," she whispered, accepting the stones. Naomi wiped the dust off them on the corner of her robes, sliding them into her bag. The boy was nice enough, polite and rather kind, but this wasn't something she was used to telling people. Except... it wouldn't take a person with any brains long to put together the people and guess anyway, and Naomi could tell that this boy wasn't dumb.

"I was meditating," Naomi said slowly. "It's just... I was also trying to induce visions. I have a... talent for it, but little control, so I was practicing." There, the truth was out. Let him judge her if he was going to, she would just have to deal with it. It was her own fault, since she hadn't bothered to check for people in the room first.

Settling back down a little when she was told she could stay, Naomi looked at Jacques' proffered hand for a moment before taking it. "Naomi O'Hare," she responded. "It's nice to meet you, Jacques." It really was nice; he had been nothing but nice to her this whole time, if understandably curious.

Blushing, Naomi nodded. "I- Yeah, I am. I don't usually... tell people about it though. I don't think a lot of people put much stock in Seers and I'm still working on actually understanding my visions, getting more than a useless glimpse." She made a face, frustrated. "It's more maddening than helpful."

Naomi noted that he said his grandfather hired a Seer to council him, not something many people could afford to do... Suddenly, his name clicked in her head and she felt her eyes get wide. "Oh. Oh. You're from the Clement family, aren't you? One of the most powerful Pureblood families in existence?" Naomi could have kicked herself for missing the obvious. Everyone, everyone had heard of the Clements. If there had been a hole in the floor, she would have cheerfully crawled into it. Instead, she just felt her face heat even further and she dropped her eyes to the ground again.

Naomi was glad her eyes were still dropped when he asked about her past visions. "Some," she whispered quietly. "I don't really... I don't really like to talk about those." She remembered watching Jake get beaten and a feeling of terror as she ran through a forest, chased by something she couldn't see... Realizing that she was staring off into the distance, Naomi shook her head. "Like I said, most of it is just glimpses, nothing I can really interpret.