The Calm before the Storm

The days flew by, and before anyone knew it, it was already the month of March. The attacks on the students had seemingly stopped for good, and the entire school breathed a collective sigh of relief. Professor Lockhart claimed the attacks must have stopped because the Heir must have been spooked by how close he had been to discovering him, but Oleandra had her doubts about that. The man wouldn't have been able to discover the Heir even if he had been hiding in his morning bowl of cereal. (Part of a complete breakfast)

In another bit of good news, Professor Sprout had received some more Mandragora seedlings. They had been generously donated by the Greengrass family, and the twin's mother, Iris, had accepted to come to Hogwarts to help raise them. At the rate at which Mandrakes grew, the petrified students would have had to wait until fall to receive their portion of the restorative draught, but with the help of Iris's signature magic, they would be fully grown by the end of the school year!

This time around, stealing the Mandrakes was out of the question, as they were needed to revive the petrified students. What's more, if they were caught, they would surely be seen as accomplices of the Heir of Slytherin, not to mention how they would severely tarnish the family's reputation. In any case, the Mandrakes were put under heavy guard, so stealing them would have been impossibly difficult.

As for the Bloodline Atavism potion, it was nearly ready. There had been some very close calls, and Daphne had to skip out of a few classes to take care of some of the final brewing steps, earning her the ire of the teachers and a few hours of detention, which Oleandra found very funny, as her sister was widely known as Little Miss Perfect. What she found less funny, though, was when she learned that a crucial brewing step would occur at a time when Daphne would be in detention, so she had to take her sister's place!

During the Easter holidays, the second years were given a very serious choice to make: they had to choose their electives for their third year! The members of the Starshower Club gathered to make this decision together.

"Let's see," said Tracey. "All students must choose a minimum of two electives, and etcetera, etcetera — Ah, we're supposed to checkmark the ones we'll be taking. Here's the list: Study of Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies—"

Draco scoffed loudly when he heard that last one.

"Arithmancy, and Divination," continued Tracey. "Oh, and it looks like there's also Alchemy, but it's only available to sixth years and up."

"Then, why's it even on the list?" asked Oleandra, frowning in confusion. Alchemy seemed interesting. After all, the Philosopher's Stone, the greatest pursuit of alchemists, promised riches and life everlasting!

"It looks like it's only for informative purposes. The class is only given if there are at least five students taking it, and they must have all Outstandings in Arithmancy, Transfiguration, and Potioneering in their O.W.L.s. They're warning us to do well in advance."

"Tch," Oleandra clicked her tongue. With her lacklustre Transfiguration grades, her newfound dream of becoming a master alchemist had just been strangled in the cradle. Oh well, if it was not meant to be…

"Can I at least drop Transfiguration and pick another elective instead?" she asked hopefully.

Tracey just shook her head. 

"I can tell what the other electives are about from the names," began Draco, "But what exactly do you do in Arithmancy?"

"Arithmancy is the art of calculating the future," answered Daphne. "It's sort of a mathematical approach to divination, except the predicted future is expressed through odds, and it's incredibly short-term."

"That sounds useless, compared to Divination," commented Tracey. "Aren't Divinations about really important events, and they can predict things far off in the future?"

"Well, that's true, but Arithmancy is not useless," explained Daphne. "Arithmancy is the way our society acquires funds from Muggle Society. Our magical economists can predict the stock market, so the Ministry uses Day Trading to acquire the funds to purchase gold and the other things we can't be bothered to mine, cultivate or make. It's also useful for Curse-Breakers, who venture into ancient tombs and temples. They never know if they're going to step on a trap, so they can quickly calculate if they're going to die that day. The same goes for alchemists; alchemical reactants are incredibly expensive, so before they attempt to make something, they can divine whether or not they'd succeed! If the reaction fails, then you've just wasted everything. Also, anyone can use Arithmancy, while you have to be lucky enough to be born a seer to use Divination."

In the end, everyone in the club wanted to take Study in Ancient Runes; they wouldn't be learning much, but at least they'd get perfect grades in a hard class to impress their parents, so that was that for the first elective.

For their other electives, Tracey said she'd choose whatever Oleandra chose, so they both picked Divination for their second elective. Oleandra simply had a good feeling about the class, and that's about all the reasoning that went behind that choice. 

At this point, they both had enough electives, but in one of her letters, Oleandra's mother had insisted that the twins take Care of Magical Creatures. The class paired well with Herbology to further their knowledge on Potioneering, since bits and pieces of Fantastic Beasts often had their place in potions. Thus, Oleandra and Tracey both took the class for their third and final elective.

As for Draco, his father wanted him to take Arithmancy, so he had to pick it. He also took what he considered to be a blow off class, Care of Magical Creatures, in order to relax. He wasn't interested in Divination at all, though.

"I'll leave you girls to your horoscopes and your astrology," he had said somewhat mockingly.

In the end, only Daphne had yet to share her choices.

"Come on," said Oleandra impatiently. "What's there to think about? You've got Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures already, so just join us in Divination. It'll be easy! Three classes should be enough to keep Mother off our backs."

Daphne flipped over her form so that the others could see her choices.

"Everything. You're taking everything?" asked Tracey, puzzled. "There's no way there's enough time in one week to take—" 

She paused to count on her fingers.

"Twelve classes!"

Daphne simply shrugged her shoulders.

"There's no rule against it, is there?"

Tracey read through the entire form once more. Curiously enough, there didn't seem to be an upper limit to the number of classes one could take.