To her surprise last year, Cassia discovered that she had rather a knack for Divination. Since then, she'd tried almost everything related to the subject - palmistry, tarot cards, and tea leaf readings, in particular, were her favorites - though Arithmancy was the one she struggled with the most. Having boasted no prior affinity for sums and figures and being of a more emotional rather than logical temperament, it was only fitting that the art of fortune-telling by numbers wouldn't come naturally to Cassia, and she had dropped the class very early on in the semester.

To the point, when Cassia was approached by one of the older students to help participate in a NEWT Divination study, she had been more than happy to accept and now found herself sitting in one of the wooden chairs dotted about the room as she waited her turn to go next. Her chin rested lightly in the palm of her hand as she stared out of the glass-paned window, noting the way the late afternoon sun shone gold over the rugged school grounds. It would make a lovely painting, she mused, though her glossy reflection in the glass made her aware of just how incorrectly she was sitting, and her governess' stern voice appeared in the back of her mind as she sat up a little straighter and placed her hands primly on the neat folds of her student robes. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too long now until she was called up; she was starting to get a little bored.

Finally, her name was called, and Cassia looked up from her hands and over at the person who spoke. She winced internally at who would be her partner for the next half hour or so. While Cassia herself bore no ill-will towards the older Gryffindor, it was no secret that Cassia's older sister and her best friend had been less than... civil towards the Urquarts after one of their own - her current partner's twin sister, no less - was turned into a werewolf. It was a hatred that Cassia never could understand; it wasn't as if Topaz Urquart had chosen to be infected, and yet, Cora and the former Miss Borgin had been rather cruel to anyone supportive of the disgraced family. It was hard to see and hear of her sister in such a harsh light, but with Beatrix gone now, Cassia was now hoping that Cora would be less under her friend's questionable influence and become more of the kind and understanding individual Cassia had always known her to be.

But the damage had still been done, and cautiously, Cassia took her seat across from Miss Urquart, her eyes also averted. "Miss Urquart," she responded a little shyly, unsure of what to say or where to begin. This wasn't exactly what she'd been expecting when she signed up to do this. Though she supposed that the only thing she could do was move forward. There might be bad blood between her sister and the other woman, but she couldn't let that affect her relationships with others when Cassia herself had nothing to do with it. With that in mind, she lifted her eyes from the table to Ruby, giving her a small (albeit forced) smile in the hopes of showing that she meant to no harm. "Shall we begin?" She asked kindly.

---

avatar & signature created by the talented lady