Fic Request/Bunny Farm

[Shepherd]

If I were much, much better at writing things that don't come across as boring and impersonal as a textbook, I'd want to write a Harry Potter fic that explores Divination as something less like a "wooly subject" and more like the GURPS magical school, but without turning Divination into some secret super magic that solves everyone's problems. After all, if Divination really is mostly useless, why did they even start teaching it in the first place? Maybe because it was one considered the equal of the other subjects.

We know that the Potterverse has a spell that can determine which direction is north (Point Me), which certainly sounds like a completely reliable and non-wooly divination to me. GURPS has all sorts of reliable spells in the Knowledge school, an advanced understanding of which is a prerequisite for the numerous variants of the Divination spell.

What if, centuries ago, some enterprising Divination Professor revamped many of the Knowledge spells he taught to include physical manifestations so it'd be more obvious when his students' spellcasting was correct or incorrect (ie. how do you know if they've correctly cast the Tell Time spell [canon to GURPS but apparently fanon to the Potterverse] and aren't simply reciting the same time as a classmate? Change the spell so the correct time appears over your wand.). That makes it much easier for them to progress to the advanced forms of Divination seen in Trelawney's classroom.

Interdepartmental politics could wind up stripping those spells from that Professor's non-tenured successor and adding them to the curriculums of the other courses (ie. spells to identify plants/animals go to Herbology/Care of Magical Creatures, spells to measure ingredients go to Potions, other spells that create visible phenomenon go to Charms, etc.). With the basic spells all stripped from the department, Divination is reduced to a third year elective. Over time, many reclassified spells cease being taught as they're unnecessary for an advanced understanding of the other subjects, while others are no longer taught because the administration really don't want students using spells like Glass Wall, Invisible Wizard Eye, and Seeker to spy on each other in the showers. Using the GURPS Spell College variant, missing prerequisites only gives you negative modifiers to spellcasting rather than making it outright impossible.

Added to the problem of lacking the proper knowledge base to properly perform full on divinations, the GURPS Divination spell generally requires a full hour to cast. I'm fairly sure the canon Divination class lasts an hour or less. So unless students start casting the instant class starts and continue until the instant class ends (all without the benefit of knowing many of the prerequisite Knowledge spells), they can't perform a proper Divination as anything other than a random fluke.

I would dearly love it if some student researching how the school curriculum has changed over the centuries (old textbooks? interviewing portraits and ghosts?) were to link the unreliability of modern divinations with the fact that most of the spells learned over the first several years of the class are no longer being actively taught. Wouldn't Transfiguration be considered a 'wooly subject' if you were expected to jump right into self transfiguration without first turning matchsticks into needles and rodents into teacups?