Professor Shackleton-Clark sits at her desk, staring out through the windows of the room as you enter. The sounds of your shuffling feet grab her attention and she greets you with a less vibrant smile than usual. Worry lines crease her forehead and she appears as though she hasn't slept much recently. There are faint purplish circles under her eyes and her hair, though neat, doesn't have its usual luster and shine.

Please take your seats and await for the start of the lesson.

Professor Shackleton... didn't look too good. Fyo's eyes filled up with concern as he stepped into the Arithmancy classroom for a lesson on his favourite subject, and found himself a seat at the front.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," he said politely.

Rachel made her way leisurely to Arithmancy, aware of the fact that she was ridiculously early. For some reason, she had not estimated the three minutes it took to get from the Ravenclaw Tower to the classroom incorrectly and was now suffering the consequences. Eh - Shackleton was ni- NO! It's Shackleton-CLARK! She was nice, anyhow.

"Hello Professor!" the sixth year greeted her Professor as she entered the classroom, her bright smile almost immediately turning into a frown as she noticed Professor Shackleton-Clark's demeanor. Taking the fact that she was one of the first in the class a given, she slowly made her way towards her favourite seat by the windows, looking worriedly at her professor as she walked.

What happened to her?

Evelyn walked in, somehow managing to be on time without having to run to class...woah, even early! 'Where is everyone? Am I really that early?' Frowning, she glanced at the Professor for a split second, waving and giving a quick mumbled, "G'Day Professor." before heading towards the back of the room as always and taking her seat, laying her head on the desk. 'Sleep, neeeeeed it.'

She felt like she was going to go mad if she didn't get any sleep and soooon. It didn't help that No-Name took her pillow every night. 'Stupid bird. Just does it to annoy me.' Maybe if she closed her eyes for a few minutes before class started...yup, she'll do that.

Don't look her in the eye, Jake. Don't do it. Don't. D- I SAID DON'T!

Unable to keep his eyes averted for very long, Jake glanced at Shackleton for just a fraction of a second. He decided that, since... you know... since he wasn't in control of his actions as well as he'd like to be right now, he'd sit at the BACK. That way, he could keep an eye on anyone who tried to steal from him again, and they wouldn't be all STARRRRRRING at him.

"P'fessor," the boy nodded curtly in greeting. Keeping one hand in his pocket, Jake didn't bother to move his slightly long, blondish-pink hair from his eyes as he went to sit down, right beside that chick Evelyn who ALWAYS felt the need to be all GRRRR with him for some reason. Deciding to not dwell on it, Jake spared Evelyn a kind of murderous smile. Resting his free hand on his desk, wand in his hand.

Okay, so that was MEANT to say 'I have my wand, so don't try anything' but it may have seemed a little more threatening than that.

Kay walked into the classroom and found a set. She looked around the room to see who was there. She looked up at the Professor and wondered if she was ok. "Hello Professor. How are you today?" Kay said smiling at her. she turned back to getting her stuff out of her bag.

Right, arithmancy. EH. Tammy really needed to start a timetable up around her lessons, Torin, and everything else. Revision was needed especially soon. After repeatedly checking she had her textbooks and her new Prada bag, Tammy had made it to the classroom, pretty much in the first batch of students. But instead of entering straight away, she had fixed her shoes, stupid flamin' heels.

Only upon entering did she notice the down trodden appearence of her HoH and arithmancy professor. "Morning Professor." She only greeted her cautiously, and then proceeded to approach her desk quickly. "Professor, are you okay? You don't look at all well." State the obvious Tam. State the flamin' obvious.

Shackleton-Clark pushed her distracted thoughts aside to greet her students, "Hello Fyodor, Rachel, Evelyn." She'd spent so many late nights racking her brain for explanations of the bizarre happenings at Hogwarts. Something was not right and it was eating her up inside trying to figure out what this nagging feeling meant.

Marie walked into class thankful that they were finally having a class inside. "Hello Professor" 'Wow, she looks like she could use some sleep' Marie thought as she sat down next to Kay.

Evelyn, who was still practically asleep, smiled when she heard someone sit next to her. Thinking it was Destiny, or maybe even Josh, she sat up straight and turned to them, about to say something funny...

So not Destiny or Josh. 'What...is...he...doing?!' Frowning, she stared at Jake who sat next to her. Sat NEXT to HER. Spotting his wand and his 'smile', she narrowed her eyes, letting her gaze drift to his pockets for a moment. She still completely believed that he was part of everything that happened at the school so far and that he kept something with him at all times. Though, she didn't really want what happened to that other Hufflepuff girl to happen to her, so she would keep her hands to herself.

Sending Jake a 'Right-back-at-you' smile back, she sat back in her seat and crossed her arms, sulking. So not how she wanted class to start out. "Hullo Jake." she mumbled monotonously, at least trying to be nice at the moment.

Before entering class, LouAnn took a deep breath, letting it out slowing before gently pushing the door open and walking inside. This was going to be a rather difficult class for her to attend. If she'd pieced the puzzle together correctly, she was part of the reason Hufflepuff, the house this professor was head of, was now short two people.

She hung her head down and scurried past the professor, mumbling a quick "Hello. How are you?" before sliding into a seat. She pulled her Arithmancy book out, opened it to a random page, and hid behind it. Nevermind the fact the book was upside down.

Josh, a little bit bored he had to join another class, walked inside the Aritmancy Class hoping to see few of his friends to have a little talk to to wash away that sleepiness over himself. He had been unable to sleep the whole night which was the reason of little dark purple shadowing down his eyes. He needed a good 'PARTEY!' to wake up and Rose might make it for him if she was already in the class.

So, once he was inside he looked around while he was intending to say 'Hi' to the professor but 'WHAT!'. What was this older Hufflepuff doing with Rose? Josh could recognise him from the pink hair 'pink!'. He never saw him before near her which mean they definitely were not friends plus this boy was crazy, he was mad: No good for Rose!. So ignoring the professor he quickly made his way towards where the Hufflepuff boy and Slytherin girl stood and once he was behind that boy he coughed, patting him on his shoulder ''Hey, what do you think you are up to pink boy'' he said emphasizing the last words ''She is with me''

Professor Shackleton-Clark vaguely greeted the remaining students as they entered. After several minutes, she glanced at her watch and stood up behind her desk. "I guess we should get started. Who can recap what we learned in the very first lesson of the term?"

Aww, professor looked bad. Evan felt almost sad at her sight of restlessness. He watched her with worrying eyes before he raised his hand to answer.

"We've learnt transit cycles, which deals with our names. It talks about our personality..?" Right? Nothing was wrong with his memory, right?

Fyo raised his hand. "You gave us a basic introduction to Arithmancy, ma'am," he said politely. "You told us that each number has its own energy, and the combined effects of these energies impact our lives and personalities. We also discussed the Transit Cycles," he went on, "and how they reveal the events we may expect to take place in our life.'

Smiling a little at the little reaction he was getting, Jake opened his mouth to say a nice, pleasant 'How are you?', watching the way Evelyn seemed to watch HIM... when someone else turned up.

Feeling the pat on his shoulder, Jake looked around carefully (though he had of course seen the boy enter, having sat so he could see the door) and looked pleasantly at the boy. "Such an original nickname," the boy murmured, before his eyes narrowed. "You wanna start something?"

There was no impediment and Jake's voice was steady, which could mean only one thing...

BUT

Jake had to be good... see... not arouse suspicion.

"Go sit down like a good boy," Jake smiled, pointing to a chair near him and wondering if the guy would sit there. "It's time for leaaaarrrning."

Turning his back to the Gryffindor (Smart? No. Good to appear like normal Jake? Yes.) Jake raised his hand and spoke steadily. "Transit cycles... something to do with the first name? And... a number..."

Okay, yeah that sounded like normal Jake.

Rachel had been busy running all sorts of possibilities to Professor Shackleton-Clark's conditions through her mind but as the aforementioned Professor spoke, the sixth year pushed all thoughts of that out and focused on the lesson. They needed the points.

"We learned about Transit Cycles - the physical transit, the mental transit and the spiritual transit. Each one is derived from different parts of your whole name - physical from your first, mental from your middle -if you don't have one then you use your last name- and spiritual from your last. They are used, like Essence Cycles, to tell you what lies ahead and offer explanations to the past in some cases," Rachel said, her hand raised. She added the last part in reference to her last homework where she had made a startling revelation.

Airthmancy was SO cool sometimes.

Marie raised her hand "We learned about the Transit Cycles which reveal the events that are going to happen in your life based on the letters in your name."

Evelyn was becoming irritated just by the presence of Jake. He was way too close to her. In her personal space bubble. Leaning a little away from, trying to ignore him till class started, she heard the familiar voice behind. She sighed in relief as she turned around and saw Josh, making her eyes brighten and smile. 'Yay, I'm saved!'



'No I'm not.' she thought dejectedly. For one, Jake didn't move and two, class has started so there was really nothing she could do about it without having attention brought to herself and possibly disrupting the class. Plus the Professor really didn't look all that well which could possibly mean that she was going to take the no-nonsense behavior today. Evelyn didn't want to lose any points at the moment... Giving Josh a small sad smile, she pointed to the free desk next to her, hoping he would sit there.

Raising her hand to answer the question, she put it down again when there were too many people who already answered. Back to her sulking posture, she stared at the desk in front of her, drawing random circles and continuing to ignore Jake.

Tori sat as usual listening to her classmates and her professor, remembering her last lesson.

Josh narrowed his eyes when the Hufflepuff murmured so he responded with the same tone imitating his attitude ''Yea, i might like to start anything if you will not behave around her'' and gave him a half smile. He did not care whom he was facing, what mattered to him was only Rose's safety so he'd never think before acting. ''Sure. Pink Panther'' he said calmy and added with a conversational tone ''We will both be the good boys then'' at first he thought of passing the seat pinky boy indicated and sit to the other side next to Rose but right now he wanted to annoy the boy so would it be fun to sit there? No, anyway there was no need fot that. ''I'll be watching you'' he whispered to the pink Hufflepuff and walking past him sat down next to Rose and pretended to listen when the professor started to speak.

Macadrian recapped, "As many of you mentioned, we discussed the Transit Cycles, with special emphasis on the Physical Transit. Today we are going to review in more depth the Mental and Spiritual Transits. The Mental Transit is found from the middle name. But, what if a person has more than one middle name? What do we do then?"

Not quite sure about this Marie raised her hand and answered anyway, well actually she just asked her own question. "Professor, would we just combine the middle names as if they were one?"

"We take all the names and string them into one long middle name," Rachel answered, her hand once again in the air.

Mina raised her hand quickly. "In the case of those that have two or more middle names, they just string all the names together as one long name and go from there."