Disclaimer: Everything you see here belongs to JK Rowling.
Chapter Two - Crystal Gazing
"After you," Lily said and gestured toward the silvery ladder hanging before her.
"No m'lady," James shook his head and smiled, "I insist, after you."
"I'm wearing a skirt, there's no way I'm climbing up that thing with you gawking from the floor," she said flatly.
James shrugged and ascended the ladder with Lily following close behind him.
"Did you do the reading?" he asked in a low tone once they had clamoured through the trap door.
"Yeah, its crystal gazing today," Lily said and raised an eyebrow. "I read that scrying is only done in the dark so let's get seats by the fire so we can actually see our notes."
"This is a terrible idea," James said as they settled down onto fluffy pouffes before the mantelpiece. "I am most definitely going to enter an altered state of consciousness but not due to any clairvoyance on my part," he muttered furtively. "This heat is unbearable," he complained and undid a button on his shirt.
"You'll survive," Lily rolled her eyes. "Besides its bad enough that I have to sit and stare at polished rocks for an hour, there's no way I'm doing it in the dark."
"We can just use lumos to read our notes, let's go sit by the window!" James pointed and loosened his tie.
"She won't have it," Lily whispered, "You didn't read the text," she argued and pointed to her open book, "part of the ritual entails sitting in the dark with only one solitary candle."
"Well if anything, the dim lighting will really set the mood eh, Evans?" he said as he rolled up his sleeves. "Really makes for a rather romantic ambiance, don't you think?"
"Shut up," she huffed and snapped her textbook shut.
"Lets begin!" Professor Signum clapped her hands together. The hushed whispering of the class was silenced as everyone turned to look at her.
"Today we are working on crystal gazing. You will notice that I have placed shew stones on each of your respective tables," she said and snapped her fingers. With a number of successive pops, crystal balls appeared at every table causing many of the students to jump in their seats. In his alarm, James nearly knocked his crystal ball off the table to sure ruin but he managed to catch it before any damage was done.
"Slick," Lily mouthed to him with a grin. James scowled at her as he returned the sphere to its stand.
"We engage in crystal gazing in an attempt to look into the future. At first upon gazing you will see nothing but fog as that is what the future is to you- an uncertain haze. With time, you will learn to see images in the fog that can tell you things about your future in love, relationships, work, money and nearly anything else you could wonder about. Remember, your ability to correctly interpret the signs is almost more important than your ability to see the signs at all. Don't be too frightened or set too much store by anything you see in the crystal. Remember that the future is very susceptible to change and that those things you might see are only part of one possible future for you."
With a swish of her wand she extinguished every candle in the room and closed all of the curtains so the only light came from the crackling fire in the hearth.
"Remember that it's helpful to have a specific question in mind when you start scrying for the first time," Professor Signum instructed them. "With that advice you may begin."
James stretched out on his pouffe and looked to Lily expectantly.
"You going to start Miss?"
"I guess," she said reluctantly and swept her hair back into a ponytail. Knees together, with her legs crossed at the ankles she leaned forward over the orb. James watched her for a moment with a smirk playing on his face.
"You might want to do up another button on that blouse," he jeered.
Lily looked up from the stone in puzzlement before looking down at her décolletage.
"James!" she said severely as she straightened up in her chair and with one hand fastened the remaining buttons of her shirt.
"What?" he raised his arms. "You should be happy, I'm guarding your modesty."
"Yeah, but not before having an eyeful," Lily scorned and crossed her arms.
"Oh, go on then, you're just resolved to be mad today," he waved her off. "You've barged into the boys' dormitory before and caught me out in my skivvies and it was all very funny then wasn't it?"
Lily scowled and opened her mouth to retort that the two situations were completely differentbut James was quicker on the mark.
"How about you just go back to gazing at that crystal and I'll go on and not gaze at what I've been gazing at, yeah?"
Lily suppressed a smile and returned to her shew stone. She stared into the murky haze but was unable to make out any discernable shapes. After a few minutes her eyes finally relaxed and she was able to clear her head of the previous conversation that had been nagging at the inner tapestry of her mind. She stared and let her thoughts slip away until she saw something moving in the fog. She looked closely and made out a fleeting, familiar face.
"Oi Potter! Quit messing around!" She said and spun to look over her shoulder.
"Hm?" he intoned and straightened up from the pouffe he had been slumped on.
"Oh," she said softly and turned back around to face him. "Sorry, nothing, just reflections," she trailed off. She turned her attention back to the crystal but the image was gone.
"See anything?" he asked interestedly.
"What? Well, no," she shook her head but continued to stare at the crystal uncertainly.
"Alright, my turn then," he said and knelt down on the floor to stare fixedly at the orb.
"You're going to hurt yourself," Lily snickered. "You're staring at it too hard, just relax."
"How would you know?" James demanded. "It's not like you saw anything!"
"Mr. Potter, how may I assist you as you stare long into the future?" Professor Signum asked sardonically from behind him.
Lily and James both turned to her helplessly.
"We're not having any luck," James admitted.
"Sometimes it's harder to See into your own future. Why don't you try looking into Miss Evans' future?"
"Is that possible?" James asked.
"Yes, the ritual remains the same but you need to keep up a channel of connection with the person whose future you are looking into."
James screwed up his face and looked from Lily to the professor in confusion.
"Touch her in some way and clear your mind except for an awareness of her presence. Good luck, try it out and I'll be back soon to check your progress."
James looked at Lily and shrugged before stretching out his hand.
Lily placed her hand grudgingly in James' but stared determinedly into the fire. She brought her other hand to her lips and pushed her nail between her teeth in vexation. She was only slightly aware of James looking intently into the orb while subconsciously rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand.
"See anything?" she asked impatiently.
"Yeah, I think so," he squinted. "There's a tall man with blue eyes," he frowned and stared harder into the stone.
"You have hazel eyes," she said without looking away from the fire.
His gaze shot up from the crystal to Lily's face and she immediately took notice of her error.
"At what point were we ever talking about me?" He asked in a slow, meditated voice.
"I, I don't know," she stuttered and shook her head. "I wasn't thinking," she excused herself.
"No," he shook his head, "You were thinking. Thinking that if there's a man in your future he must have hazel eyes," he said as a smile slowly took over his face.
"Don't be thick," she countered quickly. "I completely forgot that you were looking into my future at all, you're the one doing the gazing, I thought for a moment that we were still discussing your future and I tried to remind you that this tall figure in the fog could not be you."
He didn't look convinced but there was a hint of doubt on the bespectacled face that had seemed so sure only a moment before.
"You're just determined to believe that I hide some secret affection for you," she said scathingly whilst smoothing out the pleats of her skirt and flattening the lapels of her collar.
"Yeah?" he stood to his feet, "Well you're determined to pretend that you don't feel any affection for me at all. You expect me to believe that after knowing each other for six years you still regard me as not a friend but the least unattractive prospect in a class of dunderheads?"
Lily opened her mouth to retort but the bell tolled before she could splutter out her rebuttal. James scooped his textbook off the table and turned on his heel, leaving Lily with her book bag and one very foggy orb.
A/N: More to come. I think Tessomancy will be next. We'll see. Not to throw a pity party here but I'm stuck at home with a concussion so your reviews make my day.