Chapter 13 - Sunday

Concerning divination, Alder had not many options on his plate. Most of the books in the library about the subject were discussing previous predictions made by famous seers. In the end he had to choose a guide book which is used in the divination class in third year, 'Unfogging the Future, Vol.1'. The first volume of the book was a general guidance to divination and introduction of different techniques.

Alder checked these techniques and was surprised to see most of them looked rather unusual. He could understand some indeed needed talent and work of the seer to make a prediction. But some were about making predictions with tea leaves, twigs or palm, even numbers. He couldn't understand that since something objective is on the sight, anyone can tell what does it mean by looking at the textbook and match them. Maybe universe was showing everyone signs but only ones who are talented can interpret them.

So instead Alder put his eyes on some things that looked more important, personal stuff. Such as crystal-gazing and catoptromancy. He was particularly interested in catoptromancy, the art of seeing the future through mirrors. While he was touring Diagon Alley, he even saw a shop selling only mirrors, Janus Galloglass. He saw the Vol.4 contained the details about catoptromancy and grabbed that volume too.

"How many books can I borrow?" asked Alder to Madam Pince.

"3."

"Okay."

Thus he started thinking about his last book. It was all good and well to gain talent points by shining books, but unless he put them to more practical use, talents were rotting on his status screen. So he thought about learning how to defend himself before everything else.

'I need to learn Protego… That's basically jack of all trades spell for defense.'

Alder checked every volume of 'The Standard Book of Spells' by order and saw the spell he was looking for in the sixth volume of the book. But when he glanced at the spell, Alder couldn't understand much about it.

'Maybe I can learn it by force, following the usual path and having a solid foundation seems more practical. Overall, I can save some time.'

Thus Alder decided to grab 'The Standard Book of Spells' for second years.

Under the questioning eyes of Madam Pince, he successfully borrowed the books and started studying the first volume of 'Unfogging the Future'.

When the lunch time came he left with his borrowed books and, after placing them in his room, walked to the great hall. While he was eating his lunch alone, Tonks appeared beside him.

"Hello, Alder. Are you alone?" asked Tonks.

"Hey, Dora. Yeah, pretty much. How are you?" asked Alder with a smile.

"I'm good; the castle is more fascinating than I thought it would be. How was your day?" asked Tonks with a remnant of excitement on her face.

"I mostly checked out the library, it's also unlike whatever I have seen before. The libraries I know look like mere bookshelves right now."

"You… Are you not even curious about the castle or the school grounds? I know we're not allowed to enter the forbidden forest, but there are still plenty of place to visit." asked Tonks her eyes wide open.

"Nah, I'm not. Although I'm interested in the portraits of the castle, I have plenty of time to visit various places. I will check out those places to distract my mind sometime." said Alder calmly.

"Well, whatever you want. Do you want to join us? I'm eating with my roommates." Tonks pointed at three girls sitting not too far away from him.

Noticing Alder's gaze the girls looked at him and waved kindly to which Alder gave the same response.

Although Alder had no interest in chatting with a crew of girls, he knew networking was also important. Also he didn't want to reject Tonks' kindness; he didn't need to spend his whole day with them so a mere lunch was nothing.

"Alright, thanks for having me." said Alder and followed Tonks' lead.

After sitting down, before he could introduce himself a crisp voice interrupted his thoughts about how to do so.

"You must be Alder, right? Tonks told all kinds of things about you." said a red haired girl with freckles. Her hazel eyes were bright and she was smiling in welcome.

Alder chuckled and said "I hope they're good things.".

"Oh, all good, all good. I'm Claudia Taylor by the way. And this is Helena Fraser. And this is Lana Matthews with her lovely cat Nina." told Claudia quickly.

The former girl had long black hair that almost reached her tummy with black eyes. She raised her head as if saying sup'.

The latter had a messy, short, brown hair with brown eyes. She was also smiling like Claudia but looked more tired for some reason. "Nice to meet you, Alder." said Lana. Her cat also had brown hair but had yellow eyes unlike Lana. It raised its right paw as if saying hi to Alder.

"Nice to meet you, everyone. I heard you looked around the castle today, did you like it?" asked Alder, trying to start a conversation.

"Yeah, we also managed to find a second year student who was willing to show us some places. Did you know Slytherins are staying in the dungeons, under the lake? I can't imagine how gloomy that place must be." said Claudia.

"We'll also go to the dungeons for our first class." said Helena.

"Did you really have to remind me, I was happy that I forgot about that." said Claudia her shoulders dropped.

"It's only a couple of times a week, I think it's quite different than having a permanent residence in such a place." said Alder, not understanding why Claudia was stressing about this.

"True, but I don't get why we have to be in such a depressing place for a class. I heard the Potions class teacher also doesn't make it better, if not worse." said Claudia.

Alder slowly made himself out of the conversation and let Tonks take his place. Tonks was patiently waiting for him to chat with her friends. But seeing Alder had nothing to say; her focus divided again, after eating almost all her lunch, she also participated in the conversation.

While they were arguing possible dramas surrounding Snape, Alder looked at the cat, Nina, and asked to Lana "Can I pet it?".

"It's 'she'. And no, she doesn't let others pet her." said Lana shaking her head. She looked at her cat and hugged her again.

Alder simply shrugged and after eating rest of his lunch, he bade farewell to the girls.

…

Although Alder was sick and tired of the divination, that day he had managed to read half of the book thoroughly. It was particularly difficult to understand what parts were facts and what parts were plain filler. Trelawney herself was a true seer, having made couple of true predictions, some important ones at that, she proved herself. But she had to add some mystical actions or sayings to her life to give herself the air of a mystical being.

After listening the frenzied talks in the room about Quidditch and castle for the rest of the night, Alder's first free day at Hogwarts has come to an end.