Palmistry

"Don't complain, this means we've finished palmistry. I was getting sick of her flinching every time she looked at my hands."

- Harry Potter.

Palmistry (also known as Chiromancy, Cheiromancy, Palm-reading, or Chirology) is the art of predicting events in the future through the study of the palm. It involves the studying and interpretation of one's palm lines.

Palmistry is taught to the third-year students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter and other students in his year learned from Professor Trelawney in 1993. It was taught in Divination, where, as always, Harry was sick of his teacher predicting his death.

In 1996, Harry sat his Divination OWL, which involved palmistry as its last part. As with the rest of his Divination exam, this part went very badly; he mixed up the life and head lines in his examinator's hand, thereby informing her that she ought to have died the previous Tuesday.

Palm lines

 * Life line
 * Head line

Etymology

 * The terms "Chiromancy" and "cheiromancy" derive from Greek cheir (χειρ), "hand" and manteia (μαντεία), "divination"

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix