The following week, it seems like some folk among the student body ask Nurcan for divination. Such as the student she previously helped with significant digits and uncertainty calculations, whose face she recognizes:

  “J’aimerais vraiment que tu puisses prédire mon avenir s’il te pla?t…” (I’d really love it if you could read my future, please…)

  “?a fait un bout; je ne t’ai pas demandé ton nom la dernière fois…” (It’s been a while; I didn’t ask for your name last time…)

  “Nacien!”

  Merde! I didn’t ask for her name either last time! Nacien comes to a grim realization. She obviously knew what she’s doing in Arithmancy, but perhaps I could coax something other than Arithmancy from her this time around…

  “Nurcan!”

  “Enchanté!”

  “Ce sera quoi aujourd’hui?” (What will it be today?)

  “L’amour!” (Love!)

  “As-tu envie d’une méthode particulière?” (Do you want a particular method?)

  Shoot! Tea leaves, tarot cards and crystal ball are out of the question because I don’t have either on me right now, Nurcan starts praying that Nacien doesn’t request these methods. However, she can feel like there are only a handful of methods he could possibly request that don’t involve arithmancy.

  “Non!”

  “Alors je vais lire ta paume!” (Then I will read your palm!)

  Nurcan doesn’t waste time examining Nacien’s palm, which contains, in her mind, signs that he’s been a very bad lover. When the conclusion is about to come out, he doesn’t seem ready for it:

  “Tu dois arrêter de traiter les filles comme si elles étaient seulement des objets dans tes mains!” (You must stop treating girls as if they were simply objects in your hand!)

  “De quoi tu parles?” (What do you mean?)

  “Oui, il y a des fois où tu veux être avec telle fille parce qu’elle te procure quelque chose dont tu as besoin, et la même chose dans l’autre sens. Mais de ce que je connais de l’amour, une relation purement transactionnelle ne dure pas!” (Yes, there are times when you want to be with a specific girl because she gives you something you need, and the same in reverse. But, from what I know about love, a purely transactional relationship doesn’t last!)

  Nacien then gives Nurcan a coin for Bz1, just as she did last time, nearly four years ago.

  When Nurcan returns to her room, after completing the Potions assignment, which is about potion decay, and questions about how ingredients play into the Elixir to induce Euphoria, including its half-life, she decides to use her crystal ball in her roommates’ full view.

  What Nurcan sees in her crystal ball seems to be increasingly troubling the longer she gazes into it. She sees visions of the Triwizard Tournament grounds being turned into a battlefield.

  “Je prédis que, à cause d’intrigues royalistes, le Tournoi des Trois Sorciers deviendra un théatre de la Guerre de la Première Coalition et, si je suis de la partie à Hogwarts, j’y serai forcée de révéler ouvertement…” (I predict that, because of Royalist intrigues, the Triwizard Tournament will become a theater of the War of the First Coalition and, if make it to Hogwarts, I’ll be forced to openly reveal…) Nurcan gets interrupted.

  Christine interrupts her. “Je crois que tu laisses tes tendances révolutionnaires de placard prendre le dessus sur toi!” (I believe you’re letting your closeted Revolutionary tendencies get the better of you!)

  “Ta famille a peut-être fui la France à cause d’atrocités de guerre moldues, mais tu commences à sonner comme Alejandra!” (Your family might have fled France because of Muggle wartime atrocities, but you start sounding like Alejandra!)

  “En quoi?” (How?) Christine asks her, rolling her eyes of how Alejandra sounds on the topic of the Revolution.

  “Et… la Première Coalition? C’est quoi, ?a?” (And… the First Coalition? What’s that?) Victoria asks the would-be diviner, also rolling her eyes thanks to her cluelessness about Muggle geopolitics.

  “Arrête-moi ?a!” (Stop it!) Femke yells at Nurcan while Nurcan has her eyes back on the crystal ball, as Nurcan.

  Don’t tell me Alejandra is going to be part of the Royalists sabotaging this competition! Then again, I’m not sure 1) whether she could have become a closeted Royalist because of me, or her country’s stance on the Revolution, and 2) whether anyone at Durmstrang could be so hostile to the Revolution that they might wish to take the fight to the Triwizard Tournament! However, half-bloods and pure-bloods would be less influenced by Muggle affairs, unless they were émigrés, Nurcan’s head is spinning, and drifting away from the crystal ball.

  “Y a-t-il qui que ce soit ici qui a un cours de divination?” (Is there anyone here who takes Divination?) Nurcan asks her roommates.

  “Pas moi. Tu me sembles consumée par l’auto-divination!” (Not me. You seemed consumed by DIY divination!) Femke’s face starts to turn red.

  “De quoi tu parles?” (What are you talking about?) Nurcan, showing signs of denial, asks the Dutch.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  “La dernière fois, c’était une affaire de trois-trente-deuxièmes, et maintenant tu prédis que le Tournoi des Trois Sorciers va devenir une zone de guerre?” (Last time, it was about 3/32s, and now you foresee that the Triwizard Tournament becomes a war zone?)

  “Tu ne m’as pas répondue par rapport à la Première Coalition!” (You didn’t answer me about the First Coalition!) Victoria starts yelling at Nurcan.

  “Pour comprendre la Première Coalition, vous avez besoin de conna?tre la situation géopolitique moldue de la France, ainsi que la Révolution!” (To understand the First Coalition, you need to know about France’s Muggle geopolitical situation, as well as the Revolution!) Nurcan warns the trio in an attempt to clear up the confusion.

  Nurcan then discusses the trio about what Royalists and Revolutionaries stand for, as well as who supports whom, but just enough of an overview without going into much detail. However, she could tell Christine had the most prior knowledge about the whole situation.

  “Promettez-moi de ne pas en parler à qui que ce soit, sauf si vous êtes en danger immédiat!” (Promise me not to tell anyone about it, except when in immediate danger!) Nurcan warns.

  “Tu sais comment le reste du corps étudiant est…” (You know how the rest of the student body is…) Victoria comments about the other students’ attitudes.

  “Ouais, ils sont plus comme moi que comme toi…” (Yeah, they’re more like me than like you…) Femke sighs.

  Femke seems to be implying that she’s representative of average students… a little indifferent to Muggle affairs, Nurcan ruminates, while she’s left wondering why her Potions instructor went directly to the Elixir to Induce Euphoria.

  The following day, another one of the Triwizard Tournament long listers comes to her wanting some help, while waiting for the Potions class along with Christine.

  “Depuis que le Tournoi des Trois Sorciers a été annoncé, je suis toujours stressé!” (It seems like, since the Triwizard Tournament was announced, I’m always stressed out!) Ricardo laments to her.

  “Pourquoi en parler à moi?” (Why tell that to me?) Nurcan asks him.

  “Tu ne m’as jamais parue stressée!” (You never appeared stressed out to me!)

  “Peut-être que l’auto-divination vous ferait du bien. Une méthode qui est accessible à pas mal tout le monde est l’interprétation des rêves…” (Maybe DIY divination would help you. A method that’s accessible to almost everyone is dream interpretation…) Nurcan tells both Christine and Ricardo.

  The cold, hard truth is that I tend to keep any signs of stress inside the bedroom, and vent with perhaps a handful of peeps hearing about it, Nurcan hides how she really feels about the stress she’s under because, in part, of her coursework.

  “Moi aussi!” (Me too!) Isabella exclaims.

  And a few more students in Nurcan’s Potions section seem to want in on the opportunity to learn dream interpretation from Nurcan, especially now that she presented it as a method to calm themselves down as well as a way to get divination done by themselves. About the core concepts being the two layers of content in dreams. The manifest, which is about the storyline and imagery of the dream, and the latent, which is about the meaning that isn’t readily apparent. About the symbolism that could represent emotions or ideas.

  “Ooohhh…” Christine lets loose when she realizes what uses she could get out of do-it-yourself divination, right as the instructor of the day arrives.

  Griet? What is she doing here? I thought Griet was just some administrator, who deals with supplies lists and dorm assignments… Isabella starts wondering what happened to their regular Potions instructor. The answer arrives when the course begins:

  “Bonjour, je suis Griet, la gestionnaire des fournitures de sorcellerie, et je remplace votre prof régulier, qui rencontre un possible chef de mission au Tournoi des Trois Sorciers, venu de Vendée!” (Hi, I’m Griet, the chief attendant of witchcraft provisions, and I sub for your regular prof, who interviews a possible chef de mission for the Triwizard Tournament, coming from Vendée!)

  Depending on what experience that candidate have of procurement, I might want to delegate a portion of my job to that person until the Triwizard Tournament, Griet starts thinking about the interview taking place elsewhere, while she answers students’ questions about Vendée and what a chef de mission does.

  “Cette recette se veut un moyen rapide de retrouver la bonne humeur, l’élixir d’euphorie. Ouvrez vos livres à la page six!” (This recipe is a quick means to regain a better mood, the Elixir to Induce Euphoria. Open your books at page 6!) Griet begins the lecture proper.

  Griet then asks the students about the results they came up with for the half-life of the potion, and what that implies for its shelf life. Estimates for its half-life vary wildly: while Ricardo came up with 10 days, ultimately, there ended up being as many estimates of its half-life as there are students, with 18 months being the longest estimate, given by Isabella.

  Shoot! I confused the half-life with the shelf life! But even a half-life of two and a half months seems a bit long… Isabella realizes that she made a big mistake when trying to calculate that potion’s half-life.

  Once they compare the estimates of that potion’s half-life, the time has come for the students to prepare all the ingredients so that they can brew their very own elixirs.

  At this point, however, Griet prepares a much bigger cauldron than the students’ so that she brews more of the elixir for use by the infirmary. As such, she consumes more ingredients to brew the infirmary’s share of the potion than the entire section combined. With the brewing time being longer for her by virtue of the temperature taking longer to reach than for the students.

  This recipe starts with 1l of water, to which Nurcan adds 30g of dried shrivelfigs. Once the potion turns purple, she then adds 40g of porcupine quills, at which point she stirs 4 times anti-clockwise. The resulting potion turns turquoise after the fourth time stirring it.

  Focus, Nurcan, I must have the right weight of sopophorous beans, and I have until the potion turns blue to do so! She starts wondering whether she’ll have the right amount of that ingredient to put into the cauldron, even as she weighs them to get to 30g.

  But when the beans are put into the cauldron, the liquid turns green, at which point she simmers it until it turns pink.

  “On dirait qu’il y en a quelques-uns qui prennent les poids au sérieux ici!” (It seems like a few are actually taking weights seriously!) Griet exclaims while she gets in front of Nurcan, while she waits for her own cauldron’s contents to turn purple from the dried shrivelfigs.

  At this point, however, Nurcan is about to drop 10ml of wormwood infusion, and wait for it to become orange before stirring it six times counter-clockwise. When this is finished, the yellow potion in her cauldron emits rainbow fumes.

  “Woohoo!” Nurcan exclaims while inhaling the rainbow smoke emitted by her potion.

  After the course ends, Griet pulls Nurcan aside to ask a few questions of her, about do-it-yourself divination:

  “Je t’ai entendu parler d’auto-divination. Tu l’as présenté comme un outil pour s’enlever du stress sans potion!” (I heard you talk about do-it-yourself divination. You presented it as a tool to relieve stress without potion!)

  “Je me demande pourquoi vous n’enseignez pas les potions!” (I’m wondering why you don’t teach potions!)

  “C’est bon pour moi un peu, mais pas pour en faire une carrière. Je te serais reconnaissante si tu me montres l’auto-divination!” (It’s good for me a little, but not to make it a career. I would be grateful for you teach me DIY divination!) Griet pleads with Nurcan.