Crystal-gazing

Crystal-gazing is an art in divination of looking into crystal balls to try and gain insights into the future. It first appears in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

About

Crystal-gazing is a very refined art of looking deep into an Orb. The viewer has to focus on steadying their conscious mind and physical eyes so they clear their Inner Eye and subconscious. An Orb will get shadowy like fog. They have to try not to disturb "clairvoyant vibrations".

History

For her festive lunch in 1993, Sybill Trelawney intended to celebrate and have lunch on her own. But she looked into a crystal ball, and saw her abandoning her solo lunch to join her colleagues and students for lunch in the Great Hall instead. She told a story at lunch about how she had offered to crystal-gaze for Professor Lupin, but he had run away.

In April 1994, she taught a Divination lesson about crystal-gazing. Harry and Ron spent nearly a whole lesson staring blankly into an Orb and saw nothing. She gave an offer to help interpret a shadowy portent and soon enough, she warned Harry of what she could See stalking towards him - the Grim. Hermione got fed up and argued about how stupid she found it, and gave up her studying of Divination.

In June, Professor Trelawney tested her third-year students in their examination at crystal-gazing.They told her their findings on their own when gazing into the Orb. Parvati Patil thought she saw loads of things, but Ron didn't see anything and had to invent things. Trelawney didn't think he was telling the truth. Harry invented things too, but persuaded Trelawney of what he saw. He first told her he saw a dark shadow, and he thought of Buckbeak and told her it was in the shape of a Hippogriff. She thought he was seeing Buckbeak's execution, and was disappointed when he told her he saw Buckbeak flying away.