Healing was one of the most complex aspects of magic and Darius was sure he could have made a justifiable case for nearly any of the subjects depending on the case but there was no way in hell he was prepared for the answer to be divination. He was so disenchanted with the subject that he didn’t even bother taking the class. He finally managed to school his face back to a more netral expression before he talked again.
“Madam Perenelle, you are kidding right? That subject is the single most useless subject taught at Hogwarts, even worse than History of Magic which is taught by a literal ghost.”
“Ah no, I am not kidding Darius, though your reaction was amazing, even better than I could have hoped. And you are right, the way divination is taught today, it is worse than useless. But it wasn’t always so. These days, divination is mainly considered the subject used to predict the future and try to read fates. About half a millennium ago, that was the least used and nearly a niche ability of divining.”
“I have never read about anything like that, but I will bow to your wisdom on any matter pertaining to our history. So, what exactly is divination then. And what more can be use for other than reading the future.”
“Once again, I wish to clarify that seeing the future is one of the most niche abilities of Divination. In fact, till five centuries ago, any reading of the fates was made through the use of arithmancy, which used complex magical circles and spells connected to the land itself to predict the future in terms of percentage chances. It was like a mathematical construct and mathematical variables were built up to give the closest approximation of the future. It was not as reliable as actual seers who are capable of actually seeing the threads of fate but on the other hand, everyone was capable of learning it. The proficiency they gained in it depended on their own talent and efforts though. Divination on the other hand, was only useful to actual seers to help in seeing the future. Any normal witch/wizard would never be able to use divination to actually predict the future.
But now for the hidden aspects of divination. Divination by its very nature is the method of finding out, discovering, uncovering or seeking information of any sort, not limited to only the future. For example, a capable diviner could give you the lay of the land for miles around, guide you to the nearest river, tell you whether a berry in the wilderness is safe to eat or not, whether a person in front of you is lying or not and so much more. Depending on their specialization, diviners could find out nearly any information they put their minds to. And that is the very reason their arts are lost in the sands of time.”
“What do you mean? This is all so fascinating, and it is amazing that I didn’t know of this before. Why is it curtailed to only the least useful path now?”
“Because knowledge is power, of course. Which sort of government would want their people being capable of ferreting out all their secrets? People in power wish to hold on to it by any means possible and Divination was in the way of that. It is one of the reasons why the medieval ages were so chaotic for magicals and muggles alike. We can understand it being so for the muggles since they hadn’t had magic and neither made their nifty little discoveries and inventions then. But magicals were in the same boat, despite possessing magic. We could travel anywhere we wanted, had books in huge quantities, magic solved most everyday problems and so on. Yet, we squabbled and fought because there was no way to set up any long-term stable government. Do you think the corrupt government that exists today would have lasted even a single year back then? Of course not, the common magicians would have risen in revolt and destroyed it down to its very foundations.”
“So, you’re telling me one of the potentially most useful branches of magic was nerfed just because the ones in power wanted it to be so? This is utter shite, man. Can you think about the number of ways this could be used? The possibilities are endless.”
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“And I am glad you are able to see that, Darius. You are right about it, of course. But when several of the most powerful world leaders came together and decided to outlaw it, there wasn’t anything much the common man could have done. They went full tilt at it, taboos, disruptors, knowledge locks, partial Fidelius and more. Of course, there were people, such as Nicolas and I who managed to get away with the knowledge intact, but it was lost to the wide majority of people. The leaders made fairly persuasive arguments for their action, after all Divination truly was dangerous in the wrong hands but the place they went wrong and overstepped was that they didn’t consider the other side of the argument at all. They did not think or rather did not want to think about all the good that could be and was being wrought by Divination. Now this sacred art is almost a joke in most of the civilized world.”
“Damn it! But how did your knowledge escape the purge, Madam? And how did these leaders mange to destroy all the books, scrolls, grimoires and other physical repositories of knowledge?”
“My husband and I are too powerful to be affected by a spell like that. Particularly since they were applied at such a wide range and thus rather weakened in effect. And you need to understand that most people in power were behind this move. They used all the power and influence they possessed to make this move and thus managed to destroy the large majority of such books. But that doesn’t mean that many of them survived. A lot more of the surviving ones were destroyed due to knowledge locks and other rituals. But even despite that, I would wager there are about 200 people capable of using Divination to a reasonable level in the world. I wouldn’t be teaching you this lightly if I didn’t trust you, Darius. We didn’t even bother to teach Albus this, the man was entirely too confident about his own over-inflated self-worth. God knows how he would have utilized such a magic.”
“Then, I am all the more grateful for the chance to study it, Madam. I look forward to deciphering the mysteries of Divination.”
“Maybe we should get back to the original topic now, though?”
“What do you mean?”
“We were about to learn about the healing arts after all. Divination is just a very useful and important tool for a healer.”
Darius had entirely forgotten about healing after learning about divination and learning about its myriad uses. He was actually torn between learning healing and requesting Madam Perenelle to teach him Divination now.
Madam Perenelle caught the conflicted look and laughed heartily at him before speaking to him.
“No need to be so distraught, youngster. I wouldn’t have told you so much about Divination if I didn’t plan on teaching you anyway. Though I will admit, it was fun watching you torn between the two options. We will be doing the both of them simultaneously over the rest of the holidays.
I will be teaching you Healing directly and we will be practicing on special dummies available exactly for the purpose of training Healers. I havea couple of them in my trunk and we will be working together to get the intricacies of healing down pat.
Divination on the other hand is simply to profound and abtuse to learn in anything less than an entire year’s time. And after that you get to move on from theory and actually start practicing it, which won’t be at some great speed either. Since Divination, by dint of its very nature, has grown and expanded over the centuries it has been around, the process has become streamlined and the best way to learn in a short time has been made. I will give you a memory infusion. A copy of my memories will be put in a pensieve which you will then enter. By harmonizing your magic and mine, a property only the oldest and best enchanted pensieves are capable of, you will be able to absorb my memories as if they were your own. You will still have to practice how to use it and figure out your own personal style of divination after moving up with the standard forms, but it is a heck of a lot faster than the regular way. I estimate you will be able to make rudimentary divinations by the time you need to return to school, and this is after taking into account your prodigious magical skill and almost free nights.”
Darius couldn’t help but look forward to the rest of the summer. He got to learn healing from a living legend for her skills in the art and learn a legendary lost magic as well. What more could he ask?
“Bring it on!”