Divination

Divination is the branch of magic that tries to read the future, and it joins Harry's timetable in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as an elective taught by Professor Trelawney in a tower room reached by ladder, thick with perfumed smoke and crammed with poufs and teacups. The syllabus works through tea leaves, crystal balls, palmistry, and the stars, all in pursuit of glimpses of what is to come. The subject divides the school. Trelawney insists true Sight is a rare inborn gift no textbook can supply, sceptical students notice how flexible her predictions are, and Professor McGonagall's opinion of the discipline is arctic. Whether anything real hides in all that fog is a question the class leaves each student to settle alone.